THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


ENDOWED  BY  THE 

DIALECTIC  AND  PHILANTHROPIC 

SOCIETIES 


00012121633 


This  book  is  due  at  the  WALTER  R.  DAVIS  LIBRARY  on 
the  last  date  stamped  under  "Date  Due."  If  not  on  hold  it 
may  be  renewed  by  bringing  it  to  the  library. 

DATE                          RET 
DUE                            RET- 

DATE                           RET 
DUE 

"*;>•' 

"1"'     nr: 

WWt 

. 

4  i998 

rrn  n  *  « 

\ 

AN 


Appeal  to  CLesar 


By 


ALBION  W.   TOURGEE, 


Author  of  "A  Fool's  Ekkand,"  "Bricks  Without  Straw,"  Etc. 


"  (Hnio  Catsar  sfjalt  ttiou  go."— Acts,  xxv. 


^   The  Library 
the  University  cf  North  Carolina 
Chape!  Hill 

New  York:- 
FORDS,  HOWARD,  &  HULBERT. 

1SS4. 


Copyright,  1884, 
By  ALBION  W.  TOURG^E. 


To  all  those  who  in  mine  adversity 
showed  kindness,  this  book  is  gratefully 
inscribed. 

A.  W.  T. 


\3 
\ 


Preface. 

A  N  upas-tree  had  taken  deep  root  in  the  vir- 
***  gin  soil  of  the  New  World.  A  free  people 
hacked  it  down  with  the  sword.  It  cost  more 
than  a  million  lives  and  five  billions  of  dollars  to 
accomplish  the  task.  The  roots  were  left  to 
gather  strength  for  other  harmful  growth.  The 
Nation  was  so  elated  with  its  achievement  that 
it  forgot  all  about  the  source  from  which  the  evil 
sprang.  Already  the  new  growth  has  borne  fruit 
of  Violence  and  Misrule.  Can  we  afford  to  allow 
the  roots  to  remain  ?  How  much  can  we  afford 
to  pay  to  have  them  digged  up  ?  How  can  this 
best  be  accomplished  ? 

These  questions  this  little  book  is  designed  to 
help  every  thoughtful  and  patriotic  freeman  to 
answer  for  himself. 

The  AUTHOR. 

New  York,  July,  1884. 


Contents. 


PAGE 

A  Pledge  in  Mortmain g 

A  Retrospect 21 

A  Forgotten  Chapter 37 

Some  Queer  Notions  Plainly  Stated 49 

A  Bit  of  Personal  History 55 

A  Shattered  Idol 6S 

A  "Treason  of  the  Blood" SS 

Too  TruiT an  Evil 10S 

To-Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday 118 

A  Macedonian  Cry 136 

Accounting  for  Strange   Things   155 


8  Contents. 

TAGE 

The  Other  Side  of  the   Picture 171 

The  Black  Republics 185 

Divide  and  Conquer 199 

A  New  Complication 225 

"Am  I  my  Brother's  Keeper?" 239 

Wisdom  Becometh  a  King 260 

Is  Education  a  Specific? 267 

A  Pharmacopoeia 286 

Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy  ? 301 

The  Method  of  Application 314 

Objections  Considered . ... 349 

From  Different  Standpoints 382 

Will  Cesar  Hear  ? 408 

What  can  Cesar  Do  ? 416 


A   Pledge  in   Mortmain 


TT  was  an  afternoon  in  early  June.     Two  men 

■*■  sat  in  the  wide  embrasure  of  a  window  of  the 
White  House  at  Washington.  On  a  table  near 
them  were  a  few  books  and  a  set  of  diagrams,  to 
which  they  now  and  then  referred  in  the  course 
of  their  conversation.  The  sultry  summer  day 
was  drawing  to  a  close.  Long  soft  shadows 
stretched  across  the  lawn,  out  of  which  bright- 
hued  blossoms  looked  up  as  if  to  welcome  the 
coming  coolness.  The  gray  walls  of  the  Treasury 
building  took  on   a  yellowish  gleam  in  the  light 


io  Jin  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

of  the  setting  sun.  The  cool  evening  breeze  that 
came  in  through  the  open  window  was  freighted 
with  the  scent  of  honeysuckle  that  clambered 
over  the  trellis  below,  vexed  and  thwarted  by 
overmuch  effort  to  compel  it  to  obedience. 

One  of  the  men  was  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  The  other  was  a  citizen,  sum- 
moned to  his  presence  by  a  telegram,  which  read, 
"  Come  on  Saturday,  when  I  shall  be  at  leisure." 
It  is  treasured  now  as  a  priceless  memento. 
They  were  not  strangers.  Even  in  the  boyhood 
of  one,  their  lines  had  crossed.  Afterward  they 
had  been  fellow-soldiers,  divided  in  rank  by  a 
great  gulf,  yet  greeting  each  other  when  they  met. 

When  the  conflict  was  over  their  lives  drifted 
even  further  apart.  One  of  them  had  joined  the 
legislative  molders  of  the  nation's  destiny  ;  the 
other  was  hidden  in  the  oblivion  of  a  great 
national  experiment.  The  one  had  helped  to 
shape  the  legislation  that  was  intended  to  recon- 
struct, out  of  the  chaos  that  war  had  left  in  its 
train,  a  new  civilization.  The  other  had  watched 
upon  the  theater  of  its  operation  the  resultant 
effects  of  this  legislation.  As  a  consequence,  per- 
haps, while  in  purpose  and  sentiment  they  had 
grown  nearer  to  each   other,  yet  in  their  convic- 


A   Pledge  in   Mortmain.  1 1 

tions  as  to  policy  and  methods  they  had  drifted 
very  widely  asunder. 

The  one  had  been  disappointed  and  chagrined 
at  the  failure  of  measures,  which  he  had  heartily 
supported,  to  accomplish  a  tithe  of  the  results  he 
had  anticipated.  He  could  not  doubt  their  jus- 
tice. He  could  not  understand  their  failure. 
Had  he  dared  to  question  the  universality  of  the 
principles  of  freedom  on  which  they  rested,  he 
mi°*ht  have  doubted  whether  the  nation  had  not 
gone  too  far.  He  did  not  doubt.  He  only  won- 
dered why  good  seed  planted  with  blood  and 
tears,  "  with  malice  toward  none  and  with  charity 
for  all,"  should  yield  such  meager  sheaves  of 
good  and  such  an  abundant  harvest  of  evil.  He 
had  applied  a  specific  remedy  to  a  certain  state 
of  facts.  The  results  had  not  been  in  accordance 
with  his  expectations.  He  was  seeking  earnestly 
for  the  malign  influence — the  immediate  ex- 
traneous force  which  had  prevented  the  opera- 
tion of  causes  whose  efficacy  he  would  not 
permit  himself  to  doubt. 

The  other,  with  less  interest  perhaps  in  the 
success  of  these  specific  measures,  had  been  a 
keen  observer  of  their  operation.  His  lot  had 
been  cast  among  people  whose    daily  lives  had 


12  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

been  colored  by  their  influence.  To  him,  the 
measures  from  which  his  companion  had  hoped 
so  much  and  in  which  he  could  not  yet  abandon 
faith  had  come  to  seem  so  crude  and  ill-digested 
that,  instead  of  wondering  at  the  evil  results 
which  had  followed  hard  upon  their  adoption,  he 
was  amazed  that  infinitely  worse  things  had  not 
occurred.  Casting  about  to  discover  the  reason, 
he  perceived  that  the  President  and  his  political 
associates  of  a  previous  decade  had  legislated 
with  only  a  superficial  knowledge  of  the  life  they 
sought  to  shape,  omitting  from  their  considera- 
tion some  of  the  most  important  and  difficult 
elements  of  the  problem  they  undertook  to  solve. 
It  was  not  surprising  that  they  did  so.  The 
situation  in  which  they  found  themselves  was  a 
strange  one,  and  only  the  outer  form  of  the 
social  fabric  they  sought  to  rebuild  was  known  to 
them.  They  had  peopled  the  conquered  territory 
with  an  imaginary  life  so  like  and  yet  so  unlike 
the  reality  that  it  was  not  strange  that  a  half- 
knowledge  noted  the  resemblances  and  that  a 
fuller  intimacy  recalled  the  discrepancies. 

The  two  had  met  at  this  time  to  compare  their 
views  upon  these  questions. 

It  was  not  the  first  time  it  had  been  mooted 


A  Pledge  in  Mortmain.  13 

between  them.  Before  the  Legislator  had  be- 
come the  President,  the  citizen  had  more  than 
once  pressed  his  own  views  upon  him,  urging  a 
consideration  of  the  remedy  lie  proposed.  Ap- 
parently his  insistence  was  without  result.  Al- 
most in  despair  because  those  who  stood  at  the 
head  of  affairs  would  not  listen  to  what  he  de- 
sired to  say,  he  appealed  to  a  larger  audience, 
and  spread  his  views  before  the  whole  people. 
The  popular  verdict  which  he  had  thus  secured 
had  brought  his  theories  again  to  the  attention  of 
the  Legislator  now  become  President.  They  had 
impressed  that  officer  so  deeply  that  he  had  given 
up  a  considerable  portion  of  his  inaugural  address 
to  their  consideration,  and  had  sought  this  op- 
portunity for  consulting  personally  with  the 
author. 

For  more  than  two  hours  they  had  been  in 
close  conversation,  sometimes  walking  back  and 
forth  in  the  room,  as  was  the  President's  frequent 
custom  when  deeply  interested,  sometimes  refer-, 
ring  to  the  books  and  diagrams  upon  the  table, 
and  sometimes  sitting  by  the  window  ;  but  always 
pursuing  the  same  theme.  The  room  was  full  of 
historic  memories,  but  neither  had  time  to  think 
of  them.     Now  and  then  a  clerk  came  and  held 


14  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

a  brief  consultation  with  the  Chief  Executive. 
Once  or  twice  a  visitor,  resolute  and  importunate, 
was  admitted  to  a  hurried  interview.  But  always 
the  two  talkers  came  back  to  the  same  topic,  and 
as  the  shadows  grew  dim  upon  the  lawn  their 
conversation  drew  to  a  close.  They  found  that 
they  agreed  upon  many  things  and  disagreed  in 
regard  to  a  few.  As  to  the  evil  and  the  danger 
there  was  no  difference.  Of  the  failure  of  what 
had  been  done  there  could  be  no  denial.  As  to 
the  remedy  there  was  divergence. 

"  I  see,"  said  the  President,  laying  his  hand 
heavily  on  the  other's  shoulder  as  he  stood  beside 
him,  "  I  see  all  that  you  urge,  and  admit  that  it 
seems  reasonable  ;  but  it  will  take  so  long — so  very 
long." 

"  It  will  require  a  long  time,"  replied  the  other, 
seriously. 

"  How  long,  do  you  think — ten  years  ?"  asked 
the  President  as  he  turned  away  and  began  to 
pace  hurriedly  to  and  fro  in  the  narrow  room. 

"  Suppose  it  should  require  a  century?" 

"  You  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  will  take  that 
time  to  cure  this  evil?" 

"  I  do  not  say  it  will  require  a  decade  or  a 
century.      I  only  know  that  it  is  the  growth  of 


A  Pledge  in  Mortmain.  15 

centuries  and  cannot  be  extirpated  in  an  hour. 
Peoples — races — change  only  by  the  slowest  of 
processes  ;  a  little  in  one  generation  and  a  little 
more  in  another." 

11  But  it  cannot  be.  God  will  not  permit  it  to 
take  so  long  a  time  !" 

"  What  has  God  to  do  with  time  ?  If  he  puts  a 
task  before  us,  shall  we  not  undertake  it  because 
we  may  not  live  to  see  the  end  ?" 

"  No,  no !  But  is  there  not  some  quicker 
method — some  shorter  way  to  the  end  ?" 

"  That  is  what  you  gentlemen  who  used  to 
meet  at  the  other  end  of  the  Avenue  tried  so  long 
to  find.  Already  we  have  spent  a  decade  and  a 
half  in  trying  to  invent  a  nigh-cut — a  shorter  way 
from  Slavery  to  Freedom.  Has  anything  been 
accomplished  of  which  we  may  be  proud  ?" 

"  Ah,  no !  Where  we  expected  success  and 
honor,  we  have  met  with  failure  and  shame." 

"  Simply  because  we  were  in  too  great  haste." 

"  Why  should  we  not  be  ?  Did  we  want  the 
settlement — the  matters  arising  out  of  four  years 
of  war — hanging  over  us  for  a  generation  ?" 

"  That  is  it  exactly,"  said  the  other.  "  It  was 
not  the  settlement  of  the  issues  of  war  that  we 
attempted,  but  the  tearing  down  of  a  social  edi- 


1 6  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

fice  that  it  had  required  centuries  to  build  up,  and 
the  erection  of  another  in  its  stead." 

"Yes,"  assented  the  President,  thoughtfully, 
"  you  are  right.  But  who  could  have  foreseen 
what  has  occurred  ?  Perhaps  we  all  ought  to 
have  done  so.  We  ought  at  least  to  have  known 
that  such  changes  cannot  be  made  instanta- 
neously. How  did  you  come  to  work  out  the 
problem  as  you  have  done  there  ?"  He  pointed 
to  a  book  lying  on  the  table  as  he  spoke. 

"  Simply  because  its  elements  were  before  me 
all  the  time,  and  I  thought  of  it  day  and  night. 
Any  thoughtful  man  would  have  done  the  same." 

"  I  doubt  that,"  said  he,  with  a  pleasant  smile ; 
"  but  I  must  admit  that  I  can  find  no  fault  with 
your  conclusions.  Whatever  may  be  the  merits 
of  the  remedy  you  propose,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  you  have  correctly  diagnosed  the  disease. 
But  it  is  such  a  weary  time  to  wait !  I  could 
hardly  expect  to  see  positive  results,  if  I  should 
begin  the  work  at  once." 

"  How  much  greater  is  the  honor  to  him 
who  sows  the  seed  than  to  him  who  reaps  the 
harvest !" 

The  President  paced  thoughtfully  up  and  down 
the   room    once   or   twice.      Then,    as   a   mutual 


A  Pledge  in  Mortmain.  iy 

friend  entered,  he  referred  jocularly  to  the  subject 
of  the  conversation,  and,  quoting  a  flattering  sen- 
tence from  "  Ben  Hur,"  a  work  then  fresh  from 
the  press  and  a  prime  favorite  with  him,  he  took 
the  other's  hand  in  his  strong  grasp  and  said : 

"  You  are  right.  There  is  no  other  way.  We 
must  begin — at  the  beginning.  Write  out  your 
views  of  what  is  possible  to  be  done  and  let  me 
have  them — or,  better  still,  put  them  into  a  book 
and  I  will  study  it.  Of  course,  I  must  find  my 
own  way  in  this  matter,  but  you  can  help  me. 
No  one  else  has  studied  the  subject  in  the  same 
way  or  from  the  same  stand-point  that  you  have 
occupied.  I  have  a  great  deal  to  do.  I  am  al- 
most worn  out  now,  and  I  have  just  begun.  You 
must  help  me  in  this  matter." 

The  desired  promise  was  given.  The  friend 
who  stood  by  laughingly  witnessed  the  compact. 
When  next  we  looked  upon  that  face,  then  lighted 
up  with  almost  boyish  enthusiasm,  the  shadow  of 
the  pall  rested  upon  it. 


1 8  An  Appeal  to  Cczsar. 

This  book  is  the  fulfillment  of  that  promise. 
It  has  been  delayed  by  many  unexpected  things. 
The  death  of  him  from  whom  so  much  was  ex- 
pected brought  discouragement.  Engrossing 
occupation  distracted  the  author's  attention.  It 
seemed  a  thankless  task  to  begin  where  he  had 
begun  so  many  times  before,  and  go  wearily  over 
the  old  ground,  perhaps  for  naught.  There  came, 
too,  the  foolish  idea  that  he  had  done  enough. 
The  pressure  of  his  surroundings  had  ceased  to 
impel  him  so  urgently  in  that  direction.  He 
dreaded  the  labor  and  the  conflict — the  odium 
and  hostility  that  come  to  one  who  ventures  be- 
yond the  beaten  track  of  political  thought. 

Besides  that,  he  saw  others  working  in  a  sim- 
ilar direction.  They  were  many  and  he  was 
alone.  A  great  party  had  given  its  solemn 
pledge  to  do  what  needed  to  be  done.  Then, 
too,  he  thought  he  might  be  wrong.  Congress 
seemed  to  be  working  toward  the  matter.  Per- 
haps it  would  be  wiser  for  him  to  leave  the  task 
in  other  hands.  He  was  not  silent  or  entirely 
inactive  ;  but  he  neglected  fully  to  set  forth  the 
idea  which  had  so  long  possessed  him,  until  he 
came  to  despair  of  all  hope  for  action  from  the 
Congress  which  has  just  adjourned  (July,  1884). 


A  Pledge  in  Mortmain.  19 

And  now,  in  prep'ari  ng  the  work,  he  feels  that 
he  has  fulfilled  a  vow  to  the  dead  as  well  as  a 
duty  to  the  living.  The  appeal  is  made  not  to 
the  dear,  dead  Caesar,  whose  great  heart  was  just 
awakening  to  the  task  before  him,  but  to  that 
other  and  greater  Csesar  whom  none  so  devoutly 
revered— the  AMERICAN  PEOPLE. 


It  is  not  claimed  that  this  work  represents  the 
views  of  President  Garfield  upon  the  subject 
treated.  The  above-related  conversation  was 
-written  out  from  notes  which  were  made  imme- 
diately after  it  took  place.  One  or  two  letters 
which  the  author  has  in  reply  to  more  or  less 
complete  expositions  of  the  subject  are  of  the 
same  tenor.  The  author  does  not  believe  that 
the  President  had  decided  upon  any  particular 
course  of  action  in  regard  to  the  matter,  but  does 
believe  that  he  considered  it  the  most  im- 
portant question  that  was  to  receive  attention 
during  his  administration.  On  one  occasion  he 
expressly  stated  that  he  regarded  it  as  a  provi- 
dential thing  that  "  the  national  prosperity  is 
such  as  to  permit  appropriations  for  this  purpose 
that    would    otherwise     be     deemed     onerous.'1 


20 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


What  would  he  not  have  said  had  he  lived  to  see 
an  annual  surplus  of  more  than  a  hundred 
millions  in  the  Treasury  ! 


The  White  Spaces  Show  Proportions. 


A  Retrospect. 


r  I  ^H£  simplest  things  not  unfrequently  come  to 
-*■  seem  the  most  intricate  and  really  are  the 
most  inexplicable.  Nearly  all  the  great  convulsions 
history  records  seem  to  have  turned  upon  the 
slightest  misunderstandings.  The  construction  of 
a  single  sentence  has  more  than  once  been  ac- 
counted a  good  enough  cause  for  years  of  war- 
fare. The  meaning  of  a  single  word  set  the  Chris- 
tian world  by  the  ears  for  centuries  and  made 
martyrs  by  wholesale.  The  path  of  reconcilement 
between  two  opposing  forces  may  be  as  broad  as 


22  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  king's  Highway  to  an  unprejudiced  mind,  and 
yet  neither  party  will  consent  to  walk  therein.  It  is 
not  because  men  are  incapable  of  seeing  both 
sides  of  a  question  that  such  apparently  insignifi- 
cant differences  become  of  so  great  consequence, 
but  because  they  will  not  believe  that  those  who 
think  differently  from  themselves  are  as  honest  as 
they  know  themselves  to  be  in  their  opinions: 
thus  it  is  that  difference  once  begun  ends  only  at 
the  antipodes. 

The  story  I  desire  to  tell  is  so  simple  in  its  ele- 
ments that  it  seems  almost  absurd  to  treat  it  as 
one  demanding  serious  exposition.  There  were 
two  peoples  who  dwelt  together  as  one  nation. 
Nominally,  they  had  been  united  for  three  quarters 
of  a  century  only.  In  reality  common  interests 
and  common  dangers  had  bound  them  more  or 
less  closely  to  each  other  for  three  hundred  years. 
When  they  were  merely  isolated  colonies  they 
spoke  of  themselves  under  a  common  name. 
They  had  very  many  other  things  in  common. 
They  boasted  a  common  origin,  though  this  was 
justly  subject  to  modification.  They  spoke  the 
same  language,  worshiped  the  same  God  in  a  like 
multiplicity  of  forms,  and,  in  general,  professed  to 
revere  the  same  ideals.     Nominally  the  same  gov- 


A  Retrospect.  23 

ernment  extended  over  both,  though  in  truth  it  was 
only  a  common  form  that  lent  itself  to  hide  the  an- 
tipodal ideas  that  underlay  the  one  and  the  other. 
These  two  peoples  never  noted  or  admitted  the 
inherent  differences  that  existed  between  them. 
When  they  spoke  of  themselves  collectively  they 
said,  "  We,  the  People,"  as  if  they  were  but  one. 
Yet  each  one  accounted  its  own  distinctive 
differences  as  its  chiefest  excellences.  Instinct- 
ively, they  knew  that  a  great  gulf  lay  between 
them.  Year  after  year  they  bridged  it  with  mutual 
falsehoods.  Year  after  year  they  swore  to  all  the 
world  that  it  did  not  exist.  Yet  year  by  year  it 
grew  wider  and  deeper,  and  generation  after  gen- 
eration the  impulse  gained  to  regard  themselves 
as  dissimilar  in  all  respects  but  one — that  of  a 
common  nationality.  To  this  fiction  they  both 
clung  with  a  faith  that  would  have  been  ludicrous 
had  it  not  been  so  sincere.  They  were  like  two 
families  dwelling  in  one  house,  each  pursuing  its 
distinct  avocations  and  nourishing  its  own  inter- 
ests, yet  holding  under  one  lease  and  constituting 
one  possession.  To  the  world  they  were  one 
country;  to  themselves,  two  peoples.  To  the 
world  they  were"  The  United  States;"  to  each 
other  they  were  "  The  North"  and  <k  The  South." 


24  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

The  differences  of  thought,  sentiment,  life, 
were  world-wide  and  irreconcilable.  Looking 
backward  on  them  now,  every  thoughtful  mind 
must  wonder  that  the  lava  did  not  sooner  break 
through  the  thin,  bridging  crust.  It  is  strange 
indeed  that  the  fiery  elements  did  not  sooner 
burn  up  and  destroy  the  flimsy  pact  that  bound 
them  together.  After  all  it  was  not  the  pact  that 
held  them.  The  Constitution  they  professed  to 
revere  was  only  another  name  for  instinctive  fear. 
Neither  one  dared  face  the  world  alone  with  the 
other  as  a  foe  upon  the  flank.  Straight  as  an 
arrow  through  the  land  ran  the  line  of  demarka- 
tion.  There  was  no  visible  trace.  No  marks  and 
pointers  showed  where  the  one  people  ended  and 
the  other  began.  No  natural  cleavage  of  the  land 
was  followed.  On  this  side  of  an  imaginary  line 
was  light,  and  upon  that  darkness.  Here  a  people 
worshiping  one  ideal,  there  one  blindly  hostile  to 
it  and  fanatically  devoted  to  its  antagonistic  ex- 
treme. The  wall  which  separated  them  could  not 
be  seen  or  felt,  but  its  parapet  divided  Heaven 
and  its  foundations  were  laid  in  Hell.  The  antag- 
onisms on  which  it  was  based  were  structural,  not 
incidental.  The  division  affected  not  merely  in- 
stitutions and  the  forms  of  society  but   entered 


A  Retrospect.  25 

into    the    household,    modified    the    beliefs,    and 
marked  off  the  whole  structure  of  society. 

On  the  one  side  of  this  structural  cleavage  the 
basic  ideal  upon  which  society  was  founded  was 
individual  liberty  as  a  divine  right.  Neither  race 
nor  color  ncr  creed,  save  in  limited  and  constantly 
decreasing  degree,  was  allowed  to  restrict  the  do- 
main of  individual  action  and  power.  Society 
there  was,  without  established  grades  or  classes. 
Because  he  was  a  man,  each  one  was  peer  of  every 
other.  The  unit  of  government  was  the  indi- 
vidual. Power  went  from  the  circumference  to 
the  center  by  progressive  delegation  that  was  un- 
shackled. Religious  belief  was  unrestricted.  A 
man  might  utter  whatsoever  dogmas  he  chose 
without  restriction  and  usually  without  fear  save 
in  one  queer  instance.  He  was  not  allowed  to 
speak  ill,  no  matter  how  truthfully,  of  his 
strangely  assorted  neighbors  beyond  the  wall  of 
separation.  So  great  was  the  terror  of  ultimate 
dismemberment  that  for  many  years  it  was 
scarcely  permitted  to  any  one  to  intimate  that 
absolute  harmony  did  not  exist.  Upon  this  point 
alone  was  denied  the  right  of  individual  belief.  To 
assert  the  existence  of  conflicting  elements  in  the 
national   domain  was  the  act  of  a  public  enemy. 


26  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

The  highest  treason  was  to  declare  that  the  paper 
bond  which  united  the  twain  was  not  indissoluble. 
Every  one  knew  that  if  the  hostile  ingredients 
were  once  intimately  blended  the  union  would 
melt  like  wax.  Each  one  dreaded  the  day  of  evil 
and  prayed  that  in  his  time  it  might  not  be.  So 
they  sought  to  avoid  conflict  by  a  fierce  denial  of 
estrangement.  They  burned  with  a  mad  rage 
whenever  one,  too  true  to  be  silent,  lifted  a  little 
way  the  veil  that  hid  the  facts — the  facts  which 
were  doubted  all  the  more  fiercely  because  they 
could  not  be  denied  or  amended.  Because  they 
wished  not  to  know  the  truth  they  blindfolded 
their  souls  and  declared  that  it  did  not  exist.  In 
all  other  matters  they  were  restless  investigators. 
Individual  opinion  met  no  barrier  in  any  other 
direction.  Science  and  art  flourished  among  them 
in  unprecedented  degree.  Knowledge  erected  an 
altar  in  every  home.  Ambition  set  up  its  lure  on 
every  hearthstone.  They  hunted  out  and  de- 
stroyed every  vestige  of  privilege.  They  spread 
themselves  over  the  land  and  consecrated  to  free- 
dom every  foot  of  the  soil  they  possessed.  They 
built  a  school-house  in  every  village.  Each  one 
was  free  to  pursue  what  trade  or  avocation  he 
might  prefer.     Commerce  lined  their  shores  with 


A  Retrospect.  27 

cities.  All  forms  of  industry  filled  the  land  with 
bustle.  The  rivers  yielded  to  their  mastery.  The 
mountains  shed  their  leafy  covering,  and  groan- 
ingly  gave  up  the  treasures  hidden  within  them. 
This  people  extended  their  hands  to  those  who 
dwelt  beyond  the  seas  and  welcomed  mind  and 
will  to  the  ranks  of  those  who  wrought  and 
thought.  Their  land  became  the  highway  of  the 
world's  life.  The  nations  of  the  earth  thronged 
in  at  the  front  door  and  poured  out  at  the  back. 
The  overcrowded  Orient  sent  its  millions  to  take 
and  hold  the  unfilled  Occident.  Their  life  became 
a  hodge-podge  to  which  the  world  added  daily 
some  new  ingredient.  So  great  was  their  power 
.of  assimilation  that  the  stranger  forgot  the  land 
of  his  nativity  almost  before  he  had  time  to  teach 
his  children  the  traditions  of  the  land  of  his  adop- 
tion. What  they  demanded  for  themselves  they 
yielded  freely  to  others.  Asserting  each  man's 
right  to  rule,  they  required  none  to  obey.  Those 
who  were  at  first  called  rulers  among  them  came 
very  soon  to  be  only  their  agents  and  attorneys. 
In  governmental  form  they  carried  democracy  to 
its  utmost  limit.  Every  State  was  but  an  infinity 
of  lesser  republics ;  every  county  only  a  group 
of  self-governing  units.     They  did  everything  for 


28  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

themselves.  The  commune  builded  and  directed. 
The  school-house  and  the  ballot-box  were  under 
the  control  of  the  vicinage.  Manhood  was  the 
sole  test  of  privilege.  "  We,  the  People"  meant 
to  them  neighbors  in  council  assembled. 

On  the  other  side  the  wall  of  separation,  the 
differences  of  growth  were  not  striking  but 
irreconcilably  hostile  to  those  we  have  traced. 
There  society  was  based  not  upon  equality  but 
inequality  of  privilege.  Caste  took  the  place  of 
individual  law.  A  man  was  nothing  save  under 
specific  conditions.  The  fact  of  manhood  carried 
nothing  with  it  of  right.  Instead  of  being  vested 
with  power,  men  were  born  here  subject  to  an- 
other's will,  even  for  the  privilege  of  life.  One 
man  was  born  to  rule  ;  another  to  serve.  One 
class  was  born  to  possess  ;  another  branded  in 
the  womb  to  servitude.  Individual  freedom  was 
a  privilege,  not  a  right.  Power  centered  in  the 
hands  of  the  few.  The  necessities  of  a  class  con- 
trolled the  conditions  of  the  whole.  For  the  pro- 
tection of  the  system  the  world  was  excluded. 
The  stranger  was  looked  upon  with  distrust,  and 
the  world  was  warned  away  from  their  borders. 
Because  intelligence  was  a  dangerous  weapon  in 
the  hand  of  the  slave  the  avenues   to  its  posses- 


A  Retrospect.  29 

sion  were  rigidly  closed  against  him.     Under  the 
forms  of  democracy  here  there   existed  only  an 
oligarchy.     Instead  of  governing  themselves,  the 
people  were   ruled    from    within.      That   slavery 
might  be  secure  the  poor  were   degraded.     The 
power  of  the  ballot  was  made  conditional  even 
among   the    dominant    race.      Slavery   held   the 
power  of  the  State,  it   mattered  not  what  party 
was   uppermost,  because  no  one  was  allowed  to 
question  its  sanctity.     The   priest  who   stood  at 
the  altar  defended  the  relation  of  master  and  slave 
and  wove  it   into   the  religion  which  he  taught. 
Every  relation  of  life  was  colored  by  its  necessity. 
Whoso  dared  to  speak  against  it  became  at  once 
a  public  enemy.     The  laws  were  pledged  to  pro- 
mote its  weal.     The  statute-book  became  its  bul- 
wark.    Commerce   was    excluded    lest    it    should 
bring  peril.     Variety  of  industry  was  discouraged 
because  the  slave  could  not  compete  therein.    The 
life  of  the  highest  and  of  the  lowest,  of  the  richest 
and  the  poorest  among  all  this  people  were  shaped 
and   squared  in  every  relation  by  the    needs    of 
this  one  peculiar  institution.     So   while  the  rich 
grew  richer,   the  poor  grew   poorer.     While  the 
master   grew    more    cultured,    the   slave    became 
more  degraded 


30  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

While,  then,  the  North  became  freer  and  more 
intelligent  day  by  day,  the  South  became  more 
and  more  the  abject  creature  of  the  one  institution 
which  had  put  a  stamp  upon  its  life.  In  political 
organization  the  most  apparent  difference  lay  in 
the  fact  that  the  little  republics  which  constituted 
the  counties  at  the  North  were  unknown  at  the 
South.  Those  public  servants  whose  duty  it  is 
to  manage  the  details,  those  who  controlled  the 
school  and  the  ballot-box,  instead  of  being  chosen 
by  the  men  of  the  vicinity  were  appointed  by  the 
central  authority  of  the  State.  In  every  respect 
save  in  identity  of  form  the  political  constitu- 
tions of  the  two  sections  were  utterly  at  variance. 
Legislators  at  the  South,  it  is  true,  were  chosen 
by  the  people,  but  in  all  cases  the  choice  was 
limited  to  those  possessing  certain  qualifications 
which  predisposed  them  at  once  to  the  guardian- 
ship of  slavery.  There  was  no  opportunity  for 
liberty  to  take  root.  Freedom  of  individual 
opinion  had  no  power  to  make  itself  felt  either 
in  society,  in  the  church,  or  in  the  government. 
The  whole  structure  of  the  community  was  so 
utterly  different  from  that  which  lay  just  beyond 
the  mystic  line  that  it  seems  strange  now  that 
any  one  should  have  supposed  for  a  moment  that 


A  Retrospect.  31 

they  were  identical.  They  spoke  the  same  lan- 
guage, but  they  did  not  think  the  same  thoughts. 
The  ideal  of  the  one  was  liberty;  the  corner-stone 
of  the  other,  servitude.  Humanity  was  the  pass- 
word in  one  ;  mastership  was  essential  to  author- 
ity in  the  other.  The  one  made  intelligence  the 
right  hand  of  liberty  ;  the  other  accounted  knowl- 
edge its  chiefest  enemy.  For  this  reason  it  was — 
because  both  of  the  inherent  differences  existing 
between  these  peoples,  and  irrepressible  antagon- 
isms between  their  respective  ideals — that  not 
only  did  they  fail  to  commingle  and  understand 
each  other,  but  by  degrees  distrust  grew  up  be- 
tween them.  The  aggressive  thought  and  enter- 
prise of  the  one  was  a  constant  menace  to  the 
peace  and  security  of  the  other.  Wherever  they 
touched  each  other,  dissension  followed.  The 
lamp  of  knowledge  was  to  slavery  worse  than  the 
torch  of  the  incendiary.  It  showed  to  the  slave 
his  fetters,  to  the  poor  man  his  degradation. 

Added  to  these  essential  differences  in  the 
constitution  of  society  was  the  accident  of  color. 
The  boundary-line  of  servitude  marked  also  the 
distinction  of  race.  Only  the  white  man  had  the 
right  to  freedom  in  the  South.  If  by  chance  the 
colored  man  obtained   it,   the   instances  were  so 


32  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

rare,  and  even  then  it  was  fettered  with  so  many 
harsh  conditions  and  attended  with  so  little  of 
the  real  privilege  of  the  freeman,  that  the  ex- 
ceptions served  only  to  mark  and  emphasize  the 
rule.  The  man  whose  skin  was  black  or  even 
tinged  with  trace  of  color  stood  before  the  law 
a  slave  until  proved  otherwise  by  irrefragable 
evidence.  This  fact — while  it  alone  rendered 
the  continuance  of  slavery  possible,  while  it  per- 
mitted the  lines  to  be  drawn,  while  it  shut  out 
the  slave  from  knowledge  and  opportnnity,  while 
it  made  the  poorest  white  man  the  bitterest 
enemy  of  the  slave  himself — produced  in  the 
South  also  a  strange,  almost  incomprehensible 
element  of  hostility  and  aversion  toward  that  peo- 
ple of  the  North  with  whom  they  were  formally 
bound  and  among  whom  no  such  distinction  pre- 
vailed. In  their  minds  the  absence  of  slavery 
meant  the  degradation  of  the  dominant  race. 
Liberty  for  the  black  meant  subjugation  for  the 
whites  ;  and  not  subjugation  alone,  but  depriva- 
tion of  that  right  which  every  people  accounts 
the  highest  and  noblest — the  'right  of  domina- 
tion and  control.  .  When  that  other  people  be- 
yond the  invisible  wall  demanded  for  the  slave 
the    rights   which    they   accorded    to    manhood, 


A  Retrospect.  $3 

these,  who  had  grown  up  with  other  thoughts, 
could  not  understand  their  desire.  To  them  the 
subject-race  had  always  been  a  thing.  The  bar- 
est shadow  of  right,  if  any  inhered  in  him,  the 
right  of  the  creature  to  serve  and  exist,  was  all 
that  they  ever  dreamed  that  this  other  man,  this 
presumptive  slave,  possessed.  Why  should  any 
others  demand  more  for  him  ?  They  could  not 
realize  the  spirit  of  that  rushing,  eager,  open- 
hearted,  open-handed  people  that  dwelt  to  the 
northward  ;  and  misconstrued  its  purpose  into 
one  of  hate  to  them.  So,  there  were  added  to 
the  existing  causes  of  difference  two  potent  and 
bitter  elements :  the  belief  that  they  were  wrong- 
ed and  oppressed  ;  and  that  strange,  inconceivable 
sentiment  which  we  term  race-prejudice, — the 
feeling  that  so  often  springs  up  between  peoples 
of  different  races  and  contrasting  characteristics. 

Thus  the  distance  between  the  two  kindred 
peoples  that  dwelt  beneath  the  same  roof-tree 
and  called  themselves  one  nation,  day  by  day 
became  greater,  and  a  vague,  impalpable  senti- 
ment of  mutual  hostility  hour  by  hour  grew  more 
intense.  Each  came  to  feel  itself  wronged  by 
the  other.  The  one  thought  Liberty  a  menace 
to  Slavery ;   the  other  esteemed  Slavery  a  menace 


34  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

to  Liberty.  To  the  one  the  extermination  of 
slavery  grew  to  be  a  divine  behest,  a  sort  of  holy 
crusade  for  liberty.  To  the  other  the  mainte- 
nance of  slavery  became  that  holiest  thing  which 
can  inspire  a  people,  the  defense  of  an  inalien- 
able right.  It  was,  they  believed,  their  indubita- 
ble right,  sanctioned  by  nature  and  religion  and 
expressly  reserved  and  granted  in  the  pact  which 
bound  them  to  their  strange  neighbor  to  the 
northward,  that  they  should  have,  hold,  and  enjoy 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  mastership  at  their 
pleasure.  To  them  there  was  nothing  strange  or 
anomalous  in  this  relation.  Slavery  had  been, 
and  was.  Why  should  it  not  continue?  To 
them  it  was  the  normal  state  of  society,  a  part  of 
the  religious  duty  which  they  owed  ;  one  of  the 
holiest  Scriptural  precepts,  as  they  construed  it, 
enjoined  the  care  and  nurture  of  those  bound 
to  them  by  the  relation  of  servitude.  They 
called  it  a  "  domestic  institution,"  because  it 
touched  the  home,  because  it  was  of  the  hearth- 
stone. That  any  other  people  should  seek  to 
interfere  with  this  institution  was  to  overturn 
their  household  gods.  The  very  thought  was 
degradation,  not  merely  degradation  to  the  man 
but  the  utmost  possible   degradation  to   the  wife 


A  Retrospect.  35 

and  the  daughter.  To  free  the  slave  was  to  put 
the  negro  on  a  level  with  the  white  man  and 
to  open  the  door  to  his  entrance  as  a  guest  ;  to 
invite  him  to  stand  side  by  side  with  those  who 
had  been  masters  ;  to  offer  to  his  embrace,  the 
unspotted  daughter.  This  they  verily  believed. 

Yet  all  the  while  two  facts  remained  ;  two 
strange  and  unquestionable  facts — a  part  of  Yes- 
terday's history  which  To-day  should  not  forget 
if  it  would  secure  To-morrow's  welfare.  The  first 
of  these  marvelous  facts  is  that  during  all  this 
time  both  of  these  peoples  kept  on  asserting  that  they 
were  one  and  inseparable,  and  the  farther  they 
drifted  apart  in  interest,  in  sentiment,  in  good-will, 
the  louder  both  of  them  shouted  and  the  more 
fiercely  both  of  them  clamored  for  unity  and  iden- 
tity. The  twin  of  this  most  curious  fact  is  that 
while  both  spoke  the  same  language,  professed 
the  same  religion,  and  thought  they  were  the 
same  people,  neither  one  comprehended  nor  respected 
the  motives  of  the  other.  The  South  mocked  at 
the  zeal  for  individual  liberty  that  grew  into  a 
crusade  against  slavery  at  the  North,  as  hypoc- 
risy and  fanaticism.  They  could  not  credit  the 
idea  that  honest  men  could  honestly  believe  that 
the  holding  of  slaves  in  bondage  by  millions  of 


36  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Christian  people  could  be  a  crime  and  a  sin  against 
God.  The  North  could  not  believe  that  this 
which  they  accounted  a  sin  should  be  by  other 
honest  men  and  Christians  sincerely  believed  to 
be  not  only  a  legal  right  and  natural  privilege 
but  a  Christian  duty. 

So  the  end  came,  simply  and  naturally;  the 
end  that  a  child  might  have  foreseen  from  the  be- 
ginning:  and  that  end  was,  war.  The  two  peoples 
found  that  they  could  no  longer  live  as  one.  An 
irrevocable  destiny  demanded  that  one  ideal  must 
prevail  and  the  other  fall.  No  vigor  of  prevari- 
cation could  longer  continue  the  farce  of  the 
dual  life.  The  time  had  come  when  the  whole 
land  must  be  made  one ;  and  through  the  whole 
of  that  land  must  prevail  one  or  the  other  of  the 
ideals  that  had  heretofore  dominated  its  constitu- 
ent parts.  The  country  must  be  "  all  slave  or 
all  free." 


?/ 


THE    SOUTH     S.^03,/29      FREEMEN! 


^4 


A  Forgotten  Chapter. 

WE  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  struggle  that 
followed.  History  hath  already  recorded 
it  with  more  or  less  of  exactitude.  It  was  long 
and  fierce  because  two  brave  peoples  fought  with 
the  desperation  of  conviction — the  one  for  the 
establishment  of  what  they  deemed  a  holy  prin- 
ciple ;  the  other  in  the  defense  of  what  they 
accounted  their  most  sacred  rights. 

It  was  a  wonderful  conflict.  Neither  the  world 
nor  the  nation  has  ever  yet  half  appreciated  its 
character  and   importance.     Slavery  and  freedom 


3  8  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

claimed  almost  equal  areas,  but  the  South  had 
only  eight  millions  of  freemen  to  confront  the 
nineteen  millions  of  the  North.  While  her  slaves 
were  in  one  sense  an  aid  to  her  designs,  in  an- 
other sense  they  were  a  positive  disadvantage 
from  the  first.  Not  only  this ;  at  least  two  mil- 
lions of  the  freemen  of  the  border-States  gave 
no  assistance  to  their  natural  allies,  in  the  war 
for  secession.  So  that  the  odds  may  fairly  be 
stated  as  three  to  one,  and  that,  too,  not  in  a 
defensive  warfare,  but  with  the  smaller  popula- 
tion acting  on  the  offensive.  The  very  fact  that 
it  required  four  years  of  warfare  to  bring  either 
overthrow  or  dissolution  is  sufficient  to  attest  the 
valor  and  fortitude  of  those  who  ultimately  met 
with  defeat.  As  soldiers  they  might  well  claim 
to  rank  above  their  conquerors.  In  skill  and 
sagacity  of  leadership  they  only  lacked  that  phe- 
nomenal genius  which  laughs  at  disparity  of  num- 
bers. So  close  was "  the  conflict  that  even  the 
final  subjugation  was  as  much  a  surprise  to  the 
victor  as  to  the  vanquished.  The  war's  laurels 
were  not  unevenly  divided.  Ending  as  it  did 
through  exhaustion  rather  than  defeat,  there  was 
no  sense  of  actual  subjugation  by  the  soldiery 
who  went  to  their  homes  with  much  of  the  same 


A  Forgotten  Chapter.  39 

proud  defiance  of  the  enemy  upon  their  lips  that 
had  found  expression  four  years  before,  when  it 
began. 

Yet  between  the  opposing  forces  there  had 
grown  up  little  of  individual  feeling.  The  mo- 
tives of  either  side  were  so  different  from  what 
they  professed  that  it  was  almost  impossible  that 
much  of  that  rancor  and  hate  which  generally 
attend  civil  wars  should  prevail.  The  South  pro- 
fessed to  fight  for  the  right  of  Secession  :  in  fact, 
her  contest  was  to  hold  and  preserve  the  right  of 
enslavement  throughout  her  territory.  The 
North  professed  to  resist  simply  the  right  of  a 
State  to  secede :  in  truth,  its  efforts  were  in  the 
main  directed  against  Slavery,  and  the  real  rally- 
ing-cry  of  her  hosts  was  an  appeal  for  liberty  to 
the  oppressed  and  freedom  for  the  slave.  The 
question  of  comparative  power  was  settled  by  the 
conflict.  The  question  of  comparative  prowess 
was  left  undecided. 

The  very  first  note  of  war  disclosed  the  diverse 
characters  of  the  two  peoples.  The  line  of 
cleavage  ran  sharp  and  clean  along  the  borders  of 
the  Slave  States.  In  not  one  of  the  Free  States 
was  there  an  attempt  to  organize  rebellion.  In 
only  one   of  the   Slave  States,   and   that   one   in 


40  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

which  the  slave  system  had  almost  expired,  was 
there  an  absence  of  such  attempt.  The  two  sec- 
tions fell  apart,  not  as  a  result  of  any  organized 
conspiracy,  but  as  a  consequence  of  antecedent 
development.  The  root  of  secession  was  not  in 
the  Constitution,  nor  in  the  teachings  of  states- 
men, nor  in  the  breath  of  conspirators,  but  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  The  very  nature  and  char- 
acteristics of  the  struggle  should  have  taught 
every  one  this  fact.  The  Confederacy  was  full- 
grown  in  an  hour.  The  organism  that  to-day 
owed  allegiance  to  the  stars  and  stripes,  to-mor- 
mor  flew  the  stars  and  bars  without  any  inter- 
regnum. The  two  peoples  slipped  away  from 
each  other  without  any  impairment  of  the  au- 
tonomy of  either.  Only  the  grip  of  an  armed 
hand  held  a  foot  of  slave  territory  in  unwilling 
subjection  to  the  national  authority.  This  fact 
alone  should  have  taught  the  people  of  the  North 
the  lesson  of  pre-existent  difference  ;  but  it  did 
not. 

When  the  war  was  over  there  was  no  change  of 
sentiment  on  the  part  of  the  Southern  people. 
The  distinctive  differences  between  them  and  the 
North  were  a  little  emphasized :  that  was  all. 
There  was  none  of  that  personal  animosity  which 


A   Forgotten  Chapter.  41 

sets  a  man's  hand  against  his  neighbor,  except  in 
a  few  regions  of  limited  extent.  Even  this  was 
soon  swallowed  up  by  the  more  general  feeling  of 
collective  antagonism.  It  was  rare  indeed  to  find 
one  upon  either  side  after  the  close  of  the  war 
who  had  a  personal  antipathy  against  those  who 
had  borne  arms  against  them.  All  personal  ma- 
lignity was  swallowed  up  in  the  antagonism  that 
divided  the  two  great  peoples  like  a  gulf.  If  the 
Southern  man  had  an  antipathy  against  a  North- 
ern man  who  sought  to  become  his  neighbor,  it 
was  not  because  the  new-comer  had  fought 
against  him,  but  because  he  represented  the  ideas 
and  civilization  of  the  North  against  which  the 
South  had  waged  war.  Indeed,  the  war  had 
scarcely  any  of  the  characteristics  of  a  civil  war 
at  all.  Our  armies  were  almost  as  much  in  a 
foreign  country  after  they  crossed  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  as  a  French  army  would  be  in  the 
heart  of  Germany.  It  may  even  be  doubted  if, 
for  the  purposes  of  information  and  military 
guidance  and  assistance,  aside  from  the  colored 
race,  the  population  of  a  foreign  country  would 
not  have  been  more  serviceable  to  an  invader. 
In  their  theoretical  construction  of  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  South   before   the  war  was  divided  into 


42  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

parties.  In  their  opposition  to  the  action  and 
demands  of  the  national  government,  perhaps  no 
people  were  ever  more  unanimous  than  the  white 
people  of  the  South.  It  is  true  that  in  Eastern 
Tennessee  and  Western  North  Carolina  certain 
regiments  were  raised  for  the  Federal  Army  ;  but 
every  one  who  knows  anything  about  the  com- 
position of  those  corps  is  well  aware  that  they 
were  very  largely  made  up  of  men  belonging  to 
Northern  States.  By  reason  of  this,  the  fact  of  the 
existence  of  such  corps  greatly  magnified  the  ex- 
tent, though  not  the  intensity,  of  feeling  against 
the  Confederate  cause  which  existed  in  the 
mountain-regions  of  the  South. 

So  far,  therefore,  as  a  consideration  of  the  exist- 
ent differences  between  the  North  and  the  South 
are  concerned,  the  war  may  almost  be  left  out  of 
sight.  It  was  a  consequence  of  difference,  and 
not  to  any  material  extent  a  cause.  It  modified 
the  form  of  society  in  the  South,  but  not  its 
essential  attributes.  It  is  worthy  of  study  as  one 
phase  of  the  incongruous  development  which 
made  the  inhabitants  of  the  North  one  people 
and  the  dwellers  of  the  South  quite  another 
people,  but  the  war  itself  was  not  half  so  much  a 
civil  war  and  did  not  leave  half  so  many  heart- 


A  Forgotten  Chapter.  43 

burnings  and  animosities  among  the  people  as 
did  our  war  with  the  mother-country  for  inde- 
pendence. When  the  conflict  was  over,  each  of 
the  hostile  forces  retired  to  its  own  country. 
The  soldiers  of  the  North  returned  to  their  own 
homes,  and  the  warriors  of  the  South  to  theirs.  v> 
The  two  peoples  mingle  hardly  more  to-day  than 
they  did  in  i860.  It  would  be  almost  impossible 
that  they  should  mingle  less.  It  is  not  necessary 
for  our  purposes  to  awaken  any  of  the  antipa- 
thies or  prejudices  of  the  war.  No  appeal  to 
passion  or  hate  is  intended  or  will  be  made. 
Only  plain  hard  truths — given  not  in  blame  but 
in  explanation  of  events  that  have  occurred  and 
of  facts  that  now  exist — will  be  found  in  this 
volume.  The  war,  with  whatever  animosities  it 
engendered,  may  well  be  laid  aside  as  having  no 
bearing  in  itself  upon  the  present  or  the  future. 

Whether  a  man  was  Confederate  or  Federal  in 
the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  the 
overthrow  of  secession  and  the  freedom  of  the 
slave,  is  of  very  little  consequence  at  this  time. 
Why  he  was  the  one  or  the  other  is  worthy  of  the 
most  earnest  thought,  simply  because  it  bears 
upon  the  questions  "  What  is  he  to-day?"  and 
"  What  will  he  be    to-morrow?"       All  that  it  is 


44  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

needful  for  the  citizen  and  the  statesman  of  to- 
day to  remember  of  the  great  war  of  yesterday  is, 
not  the  battles,  the  marches,  the  conflicts, — not 
the  courage,  the  suffering,  the  blood,  but  only  the 
causes  that  underlay  the  struggle  and  the  results 
that  followed  from  it.  We  are  right  to  speak  of 
forgetting  the  war,  its  animosities,  its  sufferings, 
its  sad  memories  ;  but  only  fools  forget  that 
which  causes  war ;  and  they  are  worse  than  fools, 
they  are  enemies  of  all  mankind,  who  forget  to 
study  and  to  note  the  results  of  war  and  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  arising  therefrom. 
The  lessons  of  war  pertain  not  to  the  conflict  but 
to  its  causes.  If  those  who  have  stood  face  to 
face  as  enemies  have  not  learned  better  their  re- 
spective duties  towards  each  other  thereby,  then 
war  has  been  in  vain.  Blood  and  hatred  must  be 
forgotten;  duty  and  the  truths  which- underlay 
the  dissension  should  never  be  lost  sight  of. 
Because  an  opponent  is  honest  it  does  not  follow 
that  he  is  right,  nor  is  it  certain  that  because 
he  was  overthrown  he  was  in  the  wrong.  The 
wager  of  battle  is  no  longer  accounted  an  un- 
erring test  of  righteousness.  Because  a  people 
battle  manfully  for  what  they  believe  to  be  right, 
it  does  not  follow  that  when  the  conflict  is  ended 


A  Forgotten  Chapter.  45 

the  cause  of  difference  should  be  forgotten.  The 
old  life  cannot  be  taken  up  again,  much  less  the 
old  lie.  The  two  peoples  that  could  not  be  made 
one  by  a  century  of  persistent  asseveration  can- 
not become  identical  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
What  is  needful  for  the  present  and  the  future 
can  only  be  ascertained  by  the  closest  study  and 
the  most  perfect  apprehension  of  all  the  elements 
and  influences  of  the  past. 

The  Northern  ideal  prevailed ;  the  Southern 
ideal  was  destroyed.  Slavery,  the  great  object  of 
attack  and  offense,  was  obliterated.  The  victory 
was  complete,  the  surrender  unconditional.  The 
conquering  power  made  their  own  terms  with  the 
conquered  people.  Strangely  enough  they  went 
back  to  the  old  fault.  They  uttered  again  the 
old  delusive  cry,  "  We  are  one  '"  They  said  to 
the  South,  "  The  only  thing  that  divided  us  is  no 
more.  The  slave  is  free.  We  will  make  him  a 
citizen.  We  will  give  him  power.  He  shall  be 
as  one  with  us.  He  shall  dwell  with  you  on 
terms  of  peace  and  equality.  Now  there  is  noth- 
ing to  distinguish  us.  As  we  are,  so  are  you. 
We  will  take  up  the  thread  of  our  united  life 
where  it  was  broken  off.  We  will  live  together 
and    be    one    people.     WTe  will   forgive   and    for- 


46  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

get  ;     nay,    we    have     forgiven     and     forgotten 
already !" 

Fools  !  As  though  two  giant  trunks  become 
one  simply  because  the  hurricane  has  lashed  their 
inlocking  branches  together  for  an  hour. 

The  Southern  people  did  not  respond  heartily 
to  this  effusive  greeting,  simply  because  they  did 
not  believe  in  its  sincerity.  They  felt  themselves 
wronged  and  crushed.  They  could  not  forget, 
and  they  found  it  hard  to  be  forgiven.  What 
the  North  accounted  an  act  of  grace  and  mercy 
was  to  them  far  more  humiliating  than  defeat. 
The  blow  that  followed  war  was  a  thousand 
times  worse  than  war  itself.  The  abolition  of 
slavery  was  nothing  in  their  eyes  when  compared 
with  the  enfranchisement  of  the  freedman.  De- 
feat might  have  been  endured  bravely  ;  the  loss 
might  have  been  forgotten  ;  but  the  humiliation 
that  came  through  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
negro  was  a  new  aggression,  an  inconceivable 
insult  and  degradation,  the  shame  of  which  no 
words  can  tell. 

The  North,  its  purposes  accomplished,  clapped 
its  hands  gleefully  and  boasted  of  its  magna- 
nimity, its  Christian  kindness,  its  sagacity,  its 
shrewdness.       No    blood    had     been    shed  ;    no 


A  Forgotten  Chapter.  4; 

punishment  meted  out.  No  rebel  life  had 
been  required  in  expiation  for  the  crime  of  trea- 
son. No  man's  goods  or  chattels  had  been- 
taken,  so  they  said.  No  misguided  leader  had 
been  expatriated.  There  had  only  been  grace 
and  mercy  ;  and  in  a  little  while,  a  very  little 
while,  we  should  have  peace.  Yet  the  years  went 
on,  and  peace  came  not.  All  the  objects  of 
Northern  desire  had  been  achieved.  The  slave 
had  been  made  free.  The  freedman  had  been 
made  a  voter.  The  forms  of  Northern  society 
had  been  imposed  upon  the  life  of  the  South. 
There  was  nothing  more  to  be  done.  All  that 
patriotism,  humanity,  and  the  highest  Christian 
sentiment  could  demand  had  been  performed.- 
We  had  forgiven  our  enemies,  freed  the  slave,  and 
shown  master  and  servant  how  they  might  dwell 
in  peace  together.  Nay,  we  had  gone  farther 
still.  We  tore  from  our  banners  the  names  of 
battles  where  our  brothers  had  been  our  foes. 
From  the  captured  cannon  we  erased  the  inscrip- 
tion that  told  from  whom  it  was  wrested.  We 
put  away  the  trophies  of  victory  that  they  might 
molder  unseen.  From  the  register  of  our  army 
we  obliterated  every  word  that  could  offend. 
Surely  we    had    done  ail   our  duty — and  a  little 


48  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

more.  Not  only  grace  and  oblivion  had  we  ex- 
tended to  our  enemy,  but  greeting  and  congratu- 
lation also.  Years  went  on  ;  and  yet  the  peace- 
able fruits  of  our  righteousness  did  not  appear. 
Despite  all  that  the  North  has  done,  despite  the 
freedom  of  the  slave,  the  emancipation  of  the 
freedman,  the  destruction  of  the  old  "  corner- 
stone," the  South  remains — the  South  !  The 
affinity  between  it  and  the  North  has  hardly 
grown  stronger  than  it  was  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago.  Can  it  be  possible  that  anything  is  wrong  ? 
Is  it  conceivable  that  in  our  work  of  reconstruc- 
tion we  have  left  undone  anything  that  needed  to 
be  done  ?  Can  the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  the 
sentiment  of  the  North  by  any  possibility  be  at 
fault  ?  Is  there  any  further  thing  needful  for  us 
to  do  ?  After  twenty  years,  when  half  of  those 
who  saw  the  end  of  conflict  have  already 
passed  away,  it  would  be  well  if  we  could  stop 
and  ask  ourselves  these  qestions,  and  answer 
them  calmly  in  the  light  of  the  facts  of  history. 
Can  we  do  it  ?     Will  we  do  it  ?     We  shall  see. 


The  White  Spaces  Show  Proportions. 


Some  Qjjeer  Notions  Plainly 
Stated. 


FOR  himself,  the  author  has  become  impressed 
with  the  truth  of  certain  propositions  ;  some 
of  which  persons  much  wiser  than  he  may  deny, 
and  others  of  which  they  may  doubt.  Some  there 
certainly  are  who  will  reject  them.  There  may 
be  those  who,  having  assented  to  what  was  done 
when  it  was  done,  are  now  so  sure  that  what  they 
then  did  was  in  all  respects  perfect  and  complete 
that  they  do  not  deem  it  worth  their  while  to 
work   out    the    reckoning   anew.      Such    will,    of 


50  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

course,  find  nothing  in  these  propositions  worthy 
of  consideration.  There  are  some  who  will  at 
once  accept  a  part  of  them  and  reject  the  others 
without  consideration.  Of  those,  however,  who 
believe  that  even  Wisdom  may  sometimes  err, 
there  are  probably  very  few  who  will  not  find  in 
them    abundant  food  for   very    serious    thought. 

The  propositions  are  these  : 
I. — The  real  object  of  Reconstructionary  legisla- 
tion was  to  eradicate  all  irreconcilable  dif- 
ferences between  the  North  and  the  South, 
and  thereby  avoid  future  conflict,  establish 
homogeneity  of  sentiment  throughout  the 
country,  and  make  the  nation  ONE 
PEOPLE,  not  merely  in  form,  but  also  in 
fact. 
II. — The  legislation  which  followed  the  close  of 
the  war,  and  which  has  generally  been 
termed  Reconstructionary,  was  utterly 
insufficient  to  accomplish  such  results, 
either  immediately  or  ultimately, — in  a  de- 
cade or  in  a  century. 
III. — This  Reconstructionary  legislation,  whatever 
its  other  merits  or  defects,  whether  of  princi- 
ple or  detail,  lacked  some  essential  element 
and  must  be  and  remain  a  failure,  if  not  a 


Some  Queer  Notions  Plainly  Stated.    51 

farce,  until  that  element  is  in  some  manner 
supplied. 

IV. — Every  hour  that  we  delay  to  ascertain  and 
apply  this  supplementary  remedy  for  the 
evils  of  the  past  is  fraught  with  a  danger 
which  cannot  be  measured  and  can  hardly 
be  estimated  by  any  examples  which  History 
has  furnished. 

V. — If  such  remedy  is  not  speedily  applied,  the 
evil  that  must  result  will  be  far  greater  than 
would  have  been  likely  to  arise  from  the 
continuance  of  slavery. 

VI. — To  give  the  slave  his  freedom,  and  impose 
upon  the  freedman  the  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities of  the  citizen,  without  providing  for 
his  instruction  in  those  duties  or  securing 
him  in  their  exercise,  is  not  only  a  more 
perilous  thing  to  the  nation,  but  just  as  in- 
human a  thing  to  the  slave  as  to  have  left 
him  still  in  bondage. 

VII. — On  the  one  hand,  to  free  four  millions  of 
slaves,  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  whom  could 
read  or  write,  and  not  one  of  whom  had  the 
means  for  providing  himself  with  to-mor- 
row's bread  ;  to  give  those  freedmen  an 
equal  right  with  the    other  citizens  of  the 


52  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

several  States  in  determining  the  policy  and 
destiny  not  only  of  those  States  but  also  of 
the  nation  :  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make 
no  provision  for  their  enlightenment,  but  to 
leave  their  instruction  entirely  to  communi- 
ties impoverished  by  war  and  predisposed 
by  antecedent  development  and  the  preju- 
dice of  race  and  caste,  as  well  as  by  the 
method  and  attendant  circumstances  of 
emancipation,  to  do  but  scanty  justice  to 
the  negro — to  do  this  thing  and  to  leave 
the  other  undone,  was  not  only  an  act  of 
folly  but  of  cowardly  oppression  to  our  foes, 
and  of  the  basest  treachery  to  our  allies  in 
war. 

VIII. — So  thoroughly  have  the  conscience  and 
intelligence  of  the  North  apprehended  these 
facts  that,  while  the  nation  has  done  noth- 
ing, they  have  given  in  private  charity 
intended  to  remedy  this  evil,  nearly  a  million 
dollars  a  year  for  nearly  twenty  years.  This 
is  the  instinct  of  a  people  versus  the  stupid- 
ity of  her  legislators. 

IX. — The  turpitude  of  doing  nothing  is,  in  this 
case,  only  equaled  by  the  folly  of  leaving 
the  method  of  action  to  the  determination 


Some  Queer  Notions  Plainly  Stated,   53 

of  those  who  are,  a  priori,  least   favorably 
inclined    to    the    results     necessary    to    be 
achieved. 
X. — The  chief  reasons  why,   with  an  overflowing 
treasury,  nothing  has  yet  been  done  in  this 
direction   are  the   following:    (a)  No  party 
has  yet  laid  its  imperative  behest  upon  its 
servants  that  they  should  do  this  thing  at 
the  peril  of  disapproval  for  neglect  ;  (b)  No 
party   has   yet    discovered     any   means   by 
which  it  may  utilize  such  a  piece  of  states- 
manship to  enhance  its  chances  in  the  next 
election  by  an  appeal  to  the  self-interest  of 
the    voters  ;    (c)    No   method  has  yet  been 
devised  by  which  the  same  unity  of  senti- 
ment can  be  obtained  for  such  a  measure  as 
for  the   River  and   Harbor  Appropriation— 
that  is,  by  making  it  an  engine  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Republican  in  one  district  and  a 
Democrat  in  another. 


Any  one  who  agrees  with  these  ten  proposi- 
tions does  not  need  to  read  this  book.  To  one 
who  agrees  with  none  of  them  its  perusal  would 
be  a  useless  waste  of  time.     To  those  who  believe 


54  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

a  part  and  doubt  or  deny  the  rest,  it  is  hoped 
that  it  may  suggest  some  things  that  shall  serve 
either  to  confirm  or  remove  the  doubt,  and 
thereby  assist  them  in  determining  upon  the  duty 
they  have  to  perform.  Whether  the  Nation  shall 
seek  to  avoid  evil  or  wait  supinely  until  evil 
comes,  it  is  well  that  the  PEOPLE,  who  are  its 
rulers,  should  decide  with  open  eyes  upon  their 
duty  and  the  behests  they  will  lay  upon  their 
servants. 


A   Bit  of  Personal   History. 


THAT  the  reader  may  fully  understand  how 
the  author  came  to  entertain  the  views  set 
forth,  it  may  be  proper  to  understand  the  circum- 
stances under  which  he  has  studied  the  facts 
on  which  he  conceives  these  conclusions  mainly 
to  rest.  This  makes  it  necessary  to  refer  to  his 
own  life,  only  so  far,  however,  as  it  was  connect- 
ed with,  and  liable  to  be  affected  by,  the  public 
events  of  the  Reconstructionary  period. 

When  the  war  of  rebellion  ended  he  was  yet 
a   young    man.     He    had    been    a  soldier  in   the 


56  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Northern  army.  War  and  wounds  had  told  some- 
what on  his  chances  of  life.  A  milder  clime  was 
commended  to  him.  He  hailed  the  dawn  of 
peace  and  the  opening  to  quiet  occupancy  of  the 
region  over  which  war  had  swept  as  a  godsend. 
He  knew  nothing,  thought  nothing,  of  the  pros- 
pects of  the  future.  He  was  an  American,  a  fair 
average  representative  of  Northern  thought  and 
education.  To  him  the  war  through  which  we 
had  just  passed  meant  hardly  more  than  a  sudden 
quarrel  with  a  boon  companion  in  his  boyhood. 
He  realized  that  there  had  been  a  war,  a  long  and 
bloody  one ;  but  he  said  to  himself  that  the  war 
had  been  caused  by  slavery  :  slavery  was  at  an 
end,  peace  had  come  ;  and  that  was  all.  \He  ex- 
pected the  future  to  be  as  bright  and  busy  with- 
in the  conquered  territory  as  it  had  been  along 
the  ever-advancing  frontier  of  the  West.  He 
thought  a  new  life  would  come,  a  new  purpose 
spring  up.  Of  the  true  character  of  the  South, 
he  was,  like  all  his  class,  profoundly  ignorant ; 
almost  as  ignorant  as  the  men  who  made  the 
Nation's  laws.  If  he  thought  anything  at  all 
about  the  previous  development  of  ideas  and 
civilization  in  that  region,  he  simply  expect- 
ed   them    to    be    overturned    and    absorbed    bv 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  57 

the  more  active  and  aggressive  ideas  of  the 
North.  He  expected  the  whole  region  to  be 
transformed  by  the  power  of  commerce,  manu- 
factures, and  the  incursion  of  Northern  life, 
thought,  capital,  industry,  enterprise.  To  his 
imagination  the  South  which  had  been  devas- 
tated by  war  was  to  blossom  like  the  rose  almost 
within  an  hour.  Peace  ;  he  never  dreamed  of 
anything  but  peace.  He  supposed,  of  course,  that 
there  might  be  isolated  acts  of  crime  committed 
by  the  debris  of  disbanded  armies ;  that  private 
violence  would  follow  in  the  track  of  war  for  a 
few  months,  possibly  for  a  year.  Such  he  be- 
lieved to  be  the  universal  fact  of  history,  and  it 
gave  him  no  apprehension.  That  there  should 
be  anything  of  bitterness  or  hostility  between 
classes  or  races  that  should  materially  delay  the 
coming  of  that  millennium  the  dawn  of  which 
seemed  to  be  gilding  the  horizon,  he  did  not  even 
imagine.  Of  course,  the  question  occurred  to 
him  as  to  all  others  who  looked  upon  those 
events,  as  to  what  would  be  the  relations  of  the 
slave  to  his  former  master — whether  the  slave- 
holder would  readily  and  cheerfully  recognize 
the  freedman  as  a  self-directing  integer  ?  Yet  he 
knew  so  little  of  slavery,  he  so  utterly  failed  to 


5  8  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

comprehend  the  strength  and  vigor  of  Southern 
civilization,  that  he  had  no  doubt  in  regard  to 
the  matter.  To  him  slavery  was  a  mere  form. 
Yesterday  the  Southern  planter  had  owned  his 
laborer ;  to-morrow  he  would  pay  him  wages : 
that  was  all.  He  had  known  only  the  wage- 
system  himself.  He  had  lived  in  a  community 
where  there  was  practically  but  one  race,  and 
the  few  representatives  of  another  were  almost 
undistinguishable  by  lack  of  right  or  privilege. 
To  him  these  extraneous  relations  seemed  so 
very  easy  of  adjustment  that  he  had  no  doubt 
but  the  year  which  followed  the  folding  away 
of  the  battle-flags  would  bring  not  only  perfect 
peace,  but  an  era  of  most  unprecedented  pros- 
perity. 

He  had,  too,  the  Northern  man's  unfailing 
faith  in  the  healing  efficacy  of  trade.  He  thought 
the  plaster,  of  profit  laid  upon  the  sores  of  war 
would  work  a  miraculous  cure.  It  was  not 
strange.  Industry  and  enterprise  had  transform- 
ed the  North  from  a  wilderness  into  a  teeming 
hive.  All  the  obstructions  that  nature  interposed 
between  the  Orient  and  the  Occident  had  been 
overcome  by  the  magical  inspiration  of  greed. 
Wherever    opportunity    for    advantage    offered, 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  59 

there  the  keenest  and  strongest  spirits  had  made 
haste  to  congregate.  Kingdoms  had  been  con- 
quered from  barbarism  and  barrenness  almost  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  The  cabin  of  the  pio- 
neer had  given  way  to  the  palace  of  the  merchant- 
prince  almost  before  the  moss  had  time  to  grow 
upon  its  shingles.  Miracles  of  this  sort,  more 
marvelous  than  any  that  history  has  recorded, 
had  been  wrought  day  after  day  before  the  eyes 
of  his  generation  until  they  had  come  to  be 
thought  almost  the  normal  facts  of  life.  He  hon- 
estly believed  that  a  like  transformation  would 
soon  occur  at  the  South.  Already,  in  his  imagi- 
nation, her  watercourses  yielded  up  their  power; 
her  forests  drew  back  before  the  axman's  hand  ; 
her  fields  teemed  with  free  competitive  labor ; 
cities  rose ;  palaces  were  builded  ;  the  spirit  of 
the  North  brooded  over  the  new  domain,  merged 
itself  with  the  existent  life,  and  hoisted  above  the 
mountain-peaks  the  flag  of  a  world — defying  com- 
petition. Intelligence  and  enterprise  transformed 
the  land  without  rancor,  without  thought  of  the 
past,  but  by  sheer  force  of  the  busy  purposes  of 
to-morrow.  He  saw  people  press  on  and  on,  in 
what  was  to  him  the  race  of  progress  and  the 
path  of  civilization.     He    had    no    apprehension, 


60  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

much  less  fear.  He  had  not  even  doubt.  He 
did  not  dream  that  the  era  to  which  he  looked 
forward  with  such  glowing  anticipation  might  be 
put  off  from  year  to  year,  aye,  even  from  century 
to  century. 

Because  he  thought  he  bore  a  shattered  life  he 
sought  a  milder  clime.  He  took  his  young  wife 
with  him,  and  they  builded  there  their  first  home- 
nest  almost  before  the  smoke  of  battle  disap- 
peared. Where  he  had  been  a  soldier  he  became 
a  citizen.  His  first  object  was  restored  health : 
his  next,  desire  to  share  the  general  prosperity. 
The  brightness  of  the  future  of  which  he  dreamed 
softened  all  the  little  asperities  of  the  present. 
Like  all  those  his  brethren  of  the  North,  he  was 
proud  of  what  had  been  done,  and  believed  that  a 
few  months — the  first  full  harvest  at  the  farthest 
— would  bring  the  people  of  the  South  to  rejoice 
also  in  the  prospect  of  a  bright  and  golden  future. 
He  knew  the  North  had  been  right,  gloriously 
right,  nobly  right :  no  man  of  the  North  ever 
doubted  that.  And  because  they  had  been  so 
absolutely  right,  so  free  from  fault  or  blame,  so 
void  of  guile  or  animosity,  so  unswayed  by  self- 
ishness, so  inspired  by  love  of  liberty  and  justice 
for  all — because  of  all  these  admitted  postulates 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  6 1 

of  our  Northern  life  and  national  struggle,  he 
thought, — and  every  Northern  man  believed, — 
they  could  not  doubt,  the  wisest  of  their  wise  men 
assured  them  there  could  be  no  doubt — that  in  a 
few  brief  days,  a  month  or  two,  within  a  year  at 
the  farthest,  all  their  sometime  enemies,  every 
dweller  at  the  South,  black  and  white,  high  and 
low,  would  rejoice  in  the  new  fellowship  of  liberty 
and  the  wonderful  impetus  that  free  thought 
and  free  labor  should  give  to  enterprise  and  pros- 
perity. Of  course  he  did  not  formulate  these 
things  to  himself ;  neither  did  his  brethren,  the 
people  of  the  North.  They  could  not  have  done  so 
then.  But  throughout  the  North  the  people  felt 
them,  and  he  and  others  acted  upon  them.  So, 
before  the  smell  of  the  battle  had  departed  from 
the  brazen  throats  of  the  captured  cannon,  he 
had  builded  his  home  in  the  theater  where  war's 
great  drama  had  been  enacted,  and  before  the 
first  summer  solstice  had  arrived  had  become  a 
citizen  of  the  newly  subjugated  land. 

He  waited  undoubtingly.  The  country  waited 
wonderingly.  A  month  passed  by;  another; 
and  yet  another.  It  was  strange  !  The  millen- 
nium had  not  yet  come.  The  happy  period 
which  we  all  knew  to  be  at  hand  somehow  seemed 


62  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

to  have  been  strangely  delayed.  Looking  back 
from  our  position  of  a  score  of  years  afterward, 
those  three  years  of  waiting  from  1865  to  1868 
are  somehow  strangely  forgotten.  We  are  apt  to 
think  that  Reconstruction  abutted  squarely  on 
the  period  of  war.  Because  nothing  was  done, 
because  history  was  silent,  because  exultation  was 
giving  way  to  the  doubtfulness  of  hope  deferred, 
we  seem  simply  to  have 'lost  the  power  of  meas- 
uring or  appreciating  the  interval  that  came  be- 
tween. Yet  it  was  not  insignificant  or  unfruit- 
ful either  in  achievement  or  warning,  for  during 
that  period  the  forces  were  gathering  which  have 
since  faced  each  other  upon  Southern  soil. 

The  South  recovered  from  the  stupor  of 
defeat ;  the  North  awakened  to  a  feverish  de- 
mand that  something  should  be  done.  For  three 
years  Northern  power  and  philanthropy  domi- 
nated the  conquered  territory.  The  army  and 
the  Freedmen's  Bureau  represented  the  national 
authority  and  Northern  sentiment.  Both  were 
galling  to  the  subjugated  element.  As  time 
passed,  and  they  noted  the  conqueror's  hesitancy, 
their  native  arrogance  resumed  its  sway,  and  the 
terms  they  had  at  first  been  willing  to  accept 
with    gratitude    they  were    now    ready  to    reject 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  6 


with  scorn.  The  opposition  to  the  Government 
became  as  bitter  and  hostile  as  when  it  was 
united  under  the  banner  of  rebellion.  The  long 
delay  had  not  only  permitted  the  sentiment  of 
hostility  to  gather  new  life,  but  it  added  nothing 
to  the  wisdom  or  comprehension  of  those  whose 
duty  it  was  to  prescribe  the  terms  of  reconstruc- 
tion. Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  period  in  our 
legislative  history  is  that  from  the  spring  of  1865 
to  the  spring  of  1867.  For  two  long  years  the  air 
was  full  of  political  pyrotechnics.  Our  legislative 
halls  were  simply  the  theaters  of  forensic  jubilee. 
Month  after  month  our  orators  boasted  of  what 
had  been  done  in  the  past,  and  of  what  would 
be  done  in  the  future.  A  dozen  milk-and-water 
antidotes,  excuses  for  doing  nothing,  were  pro- 
posed and  discussed  and  laid  aside.  Wisdom 
overflowed  in  an  abundance  never  before  paral- 
leled. Everybody  knew  just  how  the  task  of 
rebuilding  should  be  performed,  but  no  one 
had  considered  it  worth  his  while  to  examine 
with  any  care  the  foundations  on  which  the  new 
superstructure  must  be  reared.  But  for  the  fact 
of  continued  military  occupation  of  the  subju- 
gated territory,  the  spirit  manifested  by  Con- 
gress in  the  conflict  with  President  Johnson,  and 


64  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  evident  inclination  of  the  people  of  the 
North  to  put  the  power  of  the  country  into 
the  hands  of  its  great  military  chieftain,  the 
spirit  of  disaffection  which  had  been  fostered 
by  the  long  period  of  delay  would  unquestion- 
ably have  swept  the  Southern  people  again  into 
the  vortex  of  revolt  when  they  came  to  realize 
the  extent  and  character  of  what  they  deemed 
the  affront  which  was  put  upon  them  by  the 
elevation  of  the  colored  man  to  power.  It 
was  this  period  that  really  shaped  the  character 
of  subsequent  events.  Instead  of  tending  to  re- 
concile the  Southern  people  in  any  degree  to  the 
bitterness  of  defeat,  it  only  added  to  the  intensity 
of  their  chagrin.  They  not  only  felt  themselves 
a  conquered  people,  but  the  emblems  of  subjuga- 
tion were  constantly  flaunted  in  their  faces.  If 
the  same  plan  of  reconstruction  that  was  finally 
adopted  had  been  put  in  force  immediately  upon 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  the  Freedmen's  Bureau 
or  some  modification  of  it  been  made  a  permanent 
national  institution,  the  history  of  the  South  for 
the  past  twenty  years  might  have  been  very  differ- 
ent from  that  which  we  now  regard  with  so  much 
of  amazement  and  shame.  Or  if  that  period  of 
delay  had  been  employed  by  our  law-makers  in  a 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  65 

careful  study  of  the  work  which  lay  before  them,  it 
is  altogether  impossible  that  they  should  have  at- 
tempted to  accomplish  that  task  with  only  the 
weak  and  insufficient  instrumentalities  which  they 
finally  employed. 

When  the  end  came  and  Reconstruction  was 
what  we  term  "an  accomplished  fact,"  these 
things  had  been  achieved  : 

The  slave  had  bee?i  made  free  and  given  the  rights 
and  privileges  appertaining  to  independent  manhood. 

The  freedman  had  been  made  a  voter  and  given 
an  equal  voice  witJi  his  former  master  in  the  direc- 
tion of  public  affairs. 

An  immense  majority  of  the  white  people  of  the 
South  had  arrayed  themselves  against  the  latter 
proposition.  The  freedom  of  tJie  slave  was  not  con- 
tested, J  lis  right  to  enjoy  the  inherent  privileges  of 
independent  existence  zvas  only  incidentally  denied; 
but  resistance  to  his  right  to  be  a  political  factor 
was  an  indissoluble  bond  that  bound  togctJier  as 
if  it  were  an  article  of  religious  faith  the  great 
majority  cf  the  whites  of  the  South,  including 
almost  all  of  its  wealth,  intelligence,  respectabil- 
ity, and  experience. 

Against  this  compacted  force  inflamed  by  every 
motive — of  pride  in  a  peculiarly  brilliant  past,  of 


66  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

revenge  for  wrongs  of  long  standing  culminating 
in  humiliating  defeat,  of  insult  forever  renewed  by 
the  presence  and  position  of  the  colored  man  in  the 
political  arena, — against  this  force  was  arrayed  the 
weak  debris  of  servitude,  ignorance,  and  poverty  ;  a 
few  iv  1  lite  men  whose  forecast  led  them  to  break 
away  from  the  majority  ;  some  whom  patriotic  con- 
viction ruled;  and  many  whom  the  greed  of  gain 
inspired;  a  few,  a  very  few,  whom  the  North  had 
sliaped  by  its  own  peculiar  influences,  who  had  cast 
in  their  fortunes  with  the  South  at  the  close  of  the 
conflict.  These  two  forces  stood  arrayed  agai?ist  each 
other  at  the  close  of  the  period  of  suspense.  The 
story  of  what  ensued  is  only  the  oft-repeated  tale 
of  history — aggression  by  the  strong,  sullen  endur- 
ance by  the  weak.  It  was  in  watching  this  con- 
flict from  its  incipiency  that  the  author's  convic- 
tions were  formed,  and  the  events  of  every  suc- 
ceeding year  only  tend  to  strengthen  them; 

The  "  color-line"  which  before  marked  only  the 
distinction  of  caste,  has  now  become  the  line  of 
demarkation  between  hostile  forces.  Out  of  the 
"irrepressible  conflict"  between  freedom  and 
slavery  has  grown  one  of  far  graver  portent  to 
the  nation  and  the  world.  Ignorance,  poverty, 
inherited  barbarism,  in  that  transition  period  took 


A  Bit  of  Personal  History.  67 

up  the  conflict  for  equality  of  right  and  parity  of 
authority,  against  intelligence,  wealth,  experience, 
and  the  bitter  prejudice  which  centuries  had  en- 
gendered between  subject-black  and  dominant- 
white.  What  will  be  the  outcome  of  this  con- 
flict ?  This  is  the  great  question  of  to-day.  Shall 
it  be  indefinitely  prolonged  and  a  state  of  feverish 
uncertainty  forever  prevail  at  the  South  ?  Must 
one  of  these  forces  overthrow,  subjugate,  and 
forever  hold  in  subjection  the  other?  Or  is  it 
possible  that  the  two  elements  may  be  reconciled, 
the  two  races  live  peacefully  side  by  side,  and 
equality  of  right  and  power  be  cheerfully  accorded 
to  all? 

Because  he  believes  that  this  might  easily  have 
been  accomplished  then, — and  may  still  be  done 
if  the  remedy  be  quickly  applied,  the  writer  makes 
this  appeal  to  that  Caesar  who  alone  hath  power 
to  compel  action  on  the  part  of  our  legislators. 


A  Shattered  Idol. 

THE  failure  of  the  Reconstruction  Acts  to 
accomplish  the  results  which  their  authors 
anticipated  from  their  operation  must  be  ad- 
mitted by  every  one.  Misrule  and  violence  were 
their  first  fruits.  The  control  of  the  majority  was 
only  less  shameful  than  the  organized  violence  by 
which  the  minority  sought  to  regain  the  power 
which  had  been  wrested  from  them  by  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  freedman  to  the  rank  of  the  citizen. 

The  responsibility  for  this  failure  rests  entirely 
with  the  people  and  the  statesmen  of  the  North. 


A  Shattered  Idol.  69 

It  is  bootless  to  say  that  the  South  has  not 
heartily  co-operated  with  them  in  the  work  of 
progress  and  rehabilitation.  As  Northern  arms 
triumphed  in  the  field,  so  Northern  ideas 
triumphed  in  the  forum.  The  work  of  recon- 
struction was  purely  and  solely  the  task  of 
Northern  legislators.  That  the  South — that  is, 
the  elements  that  constituted  "  the  South"  before 
the  struggle  culminated  in  war — did  not  co-oper- 
ate willingly  in  carrying  it  into  effect  was  only 
what  should  have  been  expected.  It  was  one  of 
the  elements  of  the  problem  which  our  states- 
men had  set  themselves  to  solve.  Resistance, 
apathy,  every  possible  species  of  obstruction 
should  have  been  foreseen  and  provided  for. 
The  duty  which  devolved  upon  the  people  and 
legislators  of  "  the  North"  at  the  close  of  the  war 
was  the  obliteration  of  those  differences  which 
had  so  long  separated  the  two  peoples.  The  task 
which  devolved  upon  the  victor  was  to  unify  the 
nation  in  spirit  as  well  as  in  form.  It  was  a  task 
that  could  not  be  shirked.  The  victory  of  the 
North  was  complete,  and  the  surrender  of  the 
South  unconditional.  The  first  step  in  the  per- 
formance of  this  task  should  have  been  to  ascer- 
tain the  causes  of  difference  ;  the  second,  either 


yo  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

to  remove  those  causes  at  once  or  to  set  in  oper- 
ation such  political,  social,  and  economic 
machinery  as  should  sooner  or  later  work  their 
utter  eradication.  In  other  words,  the  duty  of 
the  North  was  to  have  made  such  use  of  the 
power  of  the  government,  which  it  absolutely  con- 
trolled, as  to  bring  about  this  unification.  The 
causes  of  difference  were  the  causes  of  war.  To 
remove  them  was  simply  to  take  precaution 
against  after-turmoil.  The  first  of  these  it  was 
easy  to  detect  and  name, — slavery.  The  cure  for 
it  was  equally  simple, — emancipation,  liberty. 
The  half  only  was  accomplished,  however,  when 
the  war  was  ended  and  a  constitutional  amend- 
ment declared  that  institution  legally  defunct. 
Slavery  as  a  formal  fact  was  dead.  No  master 
could  longer  assert  the  right  of  ownership  and 
control.  But  slaves  and  masters  are  not  made  in 
an  hour  and  cannot  be  unmade  by  legal  enact- 
ment. Mastery  and  servitude  are  not  attributes 
that  can  be  put  on  and  off  like  a  garment.  The 
other  chief  element  of  difference  was  the  preju- 
dice of  race,  and  was  a  far  more  difficult  and 
delicate  question.  Unfortunately  it  was  almost 
coterminous  in  its  influences  with  slavery  it- 
self, although  it  was  occasionally  manifested  in 


A  Shattered  Idol.  ji 

some  forms  at  the  North  also.  For  this  reason  it 
was  difficult,  except  by  the  keenest  analysis,  to 
separate  the  question  of  the  slave's  right  to 
liberty  from  the  colored  man's  claim  to  equality 
before  the  law.  In  order  to  assimilate  the  struc- 
ture of  Southern  society  to  the  model  of  North- 
ern life  it  seemed  necessary  to  do  two  things  : 
first  to  make  the  slave  a  free  man,  and  second  to 
make  the  freedman  a  citizen.  The  first  was  very 
easily  done.  A  few  lines  upon  the  statute-book, 
an  executive  proclamation,  a  constitutional 
amendment :  perhaps  no  one  of  them  was  of  itself 
entirely  sufficient,  but  certainly  all  of  them  were 
enough  to  accomplish  what  the  triumph  of 
Northern  arms  had  already  made  inevitable. 
The  other,  the  elevation  of  the  recent  slave  to 
the  plane  of  citizenship,  was  a  far  more  difficult 
and  complicated  matter.  To  accomplish  this, 
three  things  were  necessary :  first,  to  clothe  the 
freedman  with  the  right  to  exercise  the  privileges 
of  citizenship  ;  second,  to  assure  to  him  the  op- 
portunity for  their  exercise  ;  and  third,  to  enable 
him  to  apprehend  and  rightly  to  perform  the 
duties  of  the  citizen.  Perhaps  the  last  should 
have  come  first.  It  is  hard  to  say ;  at  least  it  did 
not.       Those  who  framed  the  reconstructionary 


72  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

legislation  and  exulted  in  what  they  had  done, 
seem  not  to  have  accounted  this  element  of 
citizenship  of  any  importance  whatever.  The 
fact  that  a  man  was  free  and  had  the  abstract 
right  to  enjoy  and  exercise  the  privileges  of  the 
citizen  seemed  to  be  thought  all  that  was  neces- 
sary to  transform  a  million  of  unlettered  slaves 
into  an  equal  number  of  self-governing  citizens  to 
whom  the  power  of  the  ballot  might  safely  be  in- 
trusted. They  had  forgotten,  or  they  did  not 
know,  that  something  more  than  liberty  is  re- 
quired to  enable  a  man  to  perform  the  functions 
of  one  of  the  co-ordinate  rulers  of  a  republic. 
The  first  element  of  any  task  is  to  know  what  is 
to  be  done.  To  properly  exercise  the  functions 
of  the  citizen  a  man  must  first  of  all  things  under- 
stand the  nature  and  importance  of  those  duties. 
Sumner  exulted  too  quickly  when  he  declared 
that  by  giving  the  ballot  to  the  freedman  we  had 
"  chained  him  to  the  chariot-wheel  of  American 
progress."  The  years  that  have  followed  this 
legislation  have  proved  most  conclusively  that  the 
ballot  to  him  who  knows  not  how  to  exercise  its 
power  is  but  a  sword  in  a  blind  man's  hand.  So 
far  as  any  power  to  protect  himself  or  benefit  his 
race  is  concerned,  the  colored  man  of  the  South 


A  Shattered  Idol  73 

to-day  might  almost  as  well  be  once  more  a  slave. 
Ignorance  and  poverty  have  proved  themselves 
weak  in  a  conflict  against  knowledge  and  wealth. 
The  power  which  once  rested  in  the  master  indi- 
vidually has  not  yet  departed  from  the  race  col- 
lectively. The  white  race  of  the  South  rules  that 
region  to-day  with  as  little  regard  to  the  right  or 
power  of  the  colored  citizenship  as  if  its  possess- 
ors •  were  simply  chattels-real.  Whatever  the 
colored  man  receives  of  right,  whatever  he  has  of 
privilege,  is  granted  to  him  simply  by  the  grace 
of  those  who  were  once  his  masters  ;  whether  this 
be  more  or  less,  whether  it  be  a  complete  or  par- 
tial liberty,  it  matters  not.  It  is  only  important 
that  we  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  race  stands 
against  race,  the  former  slave  over  against  the 
former  master,  and  that  the  power  given  to  the 
newly  enfranchised  is  still  ineffective  either  to 
enforce  his  rights  or  secure  his  legitimate  privi- 
leges. 

It  matters  not  how  this  error  might  have  been 
avoided:  there  are  many  who  believe  that  enfran- 
chisement should  have  been  a  matter  of  time  and 
not  instantaneous ;  that  it  should  have  been  the 
reward  of  industry  and  intelligence  and  not  the 
accident  of  political  necessity.     There  are  those 


74  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

who  believe  it  would  have  been  better  to  have 
allowed  the  freedman  thus  to  struggle  on  toward 
the  fullness  of  liberty,  and  in  that  struggle  to 
gain  the  respect  and  sympathy  of  those  who 
had  been  his  masters.  There  are  those  who 
believe  that  if  this  had  been  placed  before  him 
as  the  reward  of  such  effort,  the  history  of  the 
race  would  have  been  more  peaceful  and  at  the 
same  time  been  richer  in  accomplished  good  than 
it  now  is.  This  we  cannot  tell.  The  simple  fact 
is  that  it  was  not  done.  In  an  instant  we 
gave  to  a  million  freedmen  the  rights,  the  privi- 
leges, and  the  dignity  of  coequal  citizenship  with 
the  dominant  race.  In  the  brief  period  of 
three  years,  from  1865  to  1868,  four  millions  of 
people  were  lifted  from  the  level  of  the 
slave  to  the  rank  of  kings.  Not  only  the  priv- 
ileges but  the  duties  of  government  were  laid 
upon  them.  They  were  required  to  legislate  and 
to  execute.  They  were  authorized  to  choose  and 
to  control.  Against  them  were  arrayed  the  pride, 
the  knowledge,  the  experience,  and  the  wealth  of 
the  white  race.  A  child  cognizant  of  these  facts 
should  have  foreseen  the  result.  Yet  the  wisest  of 
our  legislators  thought  them  not  worthy  of  con- 
sideration. 


A  Shattered  Idol.  75 

Left  to  themselves,  these  conflicting  ideas 
would  naturally  produce  the  very  results  that 
have  followed.  To  them  is  traceable  with  the 
utmost  clearness  all  the  striking  facts  of  Southern 
history  since  the  close  of  the  war.  First  there 
was  wholesale  slaughter  in  the  open  day,  like  the 
massacre  at  New  Orleans,  when  negroes  and  white 
men  first  met  in  a  public  capacity  to  organize  a 
party  of  which  the  negro  should  be  a  constitu- 
ent element.  Then  we  had  the  Ku  Klux  Klan, 
composed  of  the  very  best  of  the  white  people 
from  Virginia  to  Texas,  as  its  recent  historian 
tells  us,  organized  into  a  band  of  regulators  to 
make  the  colored  people  "  behave  themselves,"  in 
the  old-time  sense  of  the  term  ;  that  is,  as  slaves 
and  inferiors  should  "  behave."  Against  this  and 
kindred  organizations,  such  as  "  Rifle-Clubs"  and 
"  Bull-Dozers,"  there  was  a  sullen  though  unsuc- 
cessful resistance — an  opposition  as  remarkable 
for  the  courage  displayed  by  colored  voters  as  it 
was  pathetic  for  its  failure.  Then  came  the 
period  of  prostration  which  yet  continues,  when 


1  yielded  to    a    force 
y   cope    with,    l    ^ugh 


the  majority  had   at  lengt 

they  could    not    successful!; 

still   smarting    under   a  constant   and  increa  ;,:g 

sense  of  injustice. 


76  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

During  all  this  time,  the  line  of  conflict,  the 
picket-line  of  danger,  has  been  that  which  sepa- 
rates the  races.  The  slaughter  at  Hamburg  arose, 
by  all  accounts,  out  of  a  controversy  between  a 
colored  militia  company  and  two  young  white 
men  as  to  which  should  occupy  the  highway. 
The  killing  at  Danville  is  said  to  have  been  caused 
by  a  white  man's  demand  that  a  negro  should 
give  him  the  sidewalk.  Matthews  and  a  score  of 
other  white  men  have  been  killed  during  the  past 
few  years  because  they  were  "  organizing  the 
negroes"  or  "  stirring  up  the  negroes  against  the 
whites."  In  half  a  dozen  Southern  towns  there 
have  been  reports  that  the  negroes  were  "  arming 
against  the  whites."  Troops  have  been  called  out 
to  suppress  such  disturbances  several  times  even 
during  the  past  year  or  two.  Only  two  months 
ago  the  mayor  of  a  little  South  Carolina  town 
telegraphed  for  ten  thousand  rounds  of  ammuni- 
tion to  put  down  the  negroes  who  were  "  firing 
on  the  citizens."  Ten  days  after  the  Danville 
riot  the  press  of  the  country  was  teeming  with  a 
report  that  "  the  negroes  were  rising  in  North 
ampton  " 

These  things  are   not   referred   to  in  order  to 
discuss  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  acts  themselves. 


A  Shattered  Idol.  ?7 

The  field  is  too  broad  and  the  matter  of  excuse 
or  palliation  too  subtle  to  be  properly  considered 
here.  All  that  is  intended  by  mentioning  these 
is  to  show  that  the  line  of  cleavage  in  Southern 
life  is  the  line  of  color.  All  other  interests, 
prejudices  and  feelings  vanish  before  the  one 
consideration  of  race.  '  "  I  am  a  white  man,"  was 
the  reply  of  a  witness  in  the  Danville  investiga- 
tion, "  and  stand  by  my  people."  He  did  not 
claim  that  he  knew  anything  about  the  cause  of 
the  affray.  He  did  not  care  to  know.  On  the 
one  side  were  negroes  ;  on  the  other,  whites.  He 
needed  nothing  more  to  show  where  he  should 
stand.  A  similar  spirit  was  manifested  by  the 
colored  witnesses.  They  regarded  the  attack  as 
directed  against  their  race  and  consequently 
against  themselves.  In  other  words,  the  line  of 
danger  and  friction  and  conflict  at  the  South  is 
where  race  touches  race  in  interest  or  in  claim  of 
right.  Hamburg  and  Danville  were  not  sporadic 
cases  of  riot  resulting  from  local  causes.  They  all 
have  a  common  cause — the  antagonism  of  race 
intensified  by  the  hostility  of  caste.  They  are 
not  isolated  and  spontaneous  combustions,  but 
are  simply  craters  the  eruptions  from  which  give 
evidence    of    the  ■  molten    sea    which    underlies 


;S  An  Appeal  to  Cczsar. 

the  whole  social  and  political  life  of  the  Southern 
people. 

This  is  proved  not  merely  by  the  events 
themselves,  but  by  the  intense  and  fierce  excite- 
ment that  pervades  every  Southern  community 
upon  the  rumor  of  any  such  disturbance.  Only 
let  it  be  reported  that  "  the  negroes  are  rising"  in 
any  little  town  of  the  South,  and  a  whole  State  is 
thrown  into  a  fever  of  excitement.  Cities  a  hun- 
dred miles  away  rush  to  arms.  Nothing  else  is 
thought  of.  Men  and  women  rave  wildly  about 
it  as  if  a  savage  invader  had  landed  upon  the 
coast.  There  is  nothing  to  parallel  the  excite- 
ment it  causes  except  the  red-eyed  fury  which 
prevails  in  a  Western  mining-camp  upon  the 
rumor  of  Indian  outrages  at  some  remote  ranch 
on  the  frontier.  They  are  similar  in  character 
because  they  spring  from  a  like  source.  Both  are 
instinctive  manifestations  of  rage  against  the  pre- 
sumptuous violence  of  what  are  considered  com- 
mon enemies,  members  of  another  and  an  inferior 
race.  Resentment  at  the  presumption  of  an 
inferior  mingles  with  apprehension  and  the  desire 
for  revenge.  It  reminds  one  who  has  witnessed 
it  of  the  indignant  terror  which  fills  the  breasts  of 
English  residents  in  India  at  the  rumor  of  rebel- 


A  Shattered  Idol.  jg 

lion  among  the  "  niggers"  which  the  few  thou- 
sands of  British  subjects  hold  in  check  in  their 
Oriental  empire.  In  short,  it  is  the  feeling  which 
has  universally  prevailed,  in  a  more  or  less  intense 
form,  between  two  races  of  distinct  and  unassimi- 
lable  characteristics  occupying  the  same  territory. 
In  this  case,  both  color  and  caste  prevent  the  uni- 
fication of  the  people.  Practically  considered, 
there  have  been  but  two  parties  at  the  South 
since  the  close  of  the  war.  From  the  nature  of 
the  events  by  which  they  were  surrounded,  these 
parties  were  in  a  sense  social  as  well  as  political. 
Their  line  of  cleavage,  while  it  did  not  always 
follow  the  line  of  race,  received  its  direction  from 
that  and  became  thus  a  distinction  of  caste. 
These  classes  are  : 

I. — The  great  mass  of  colored  people  of  the  South. 
It  is  not  at  all  probable  that  by  proper  and 
legitimate  methods  as  much  as  one  per  cent 
of  this  race  have  ever  been  induced  to  act 
against  their  fellows  upon  any  political  issue. 
This  class  included  also  all  of  those  white 
men  resident  at  the  South  who  from  what- 
ever motive  espoused  the  political  cause  of 
the  negro  as  set  forth  in  our  reconstruction- 
ary  legislation,  and  acted  with  him  to  obtain 


So  An  Appeal  to  Cczsar. 

for  him  equality  of  right  and  power  in  every 
State  of  the  South. 
2. — The  other  class  was  composed  of  those  who, 
whatever  might  be  their  individual  feelings 
toward  the  colored  race,  were  united  in  this 
one  sentiment,  to  wit,  that   a  majority  com- 
posed of   a   considerable  preponderance  of 
blacks  should  not  exercise  the  power  of  the 
States  in  which  they  dwelt. 
These   classes   were    separated    by    some   very 
peculiar  but  powerful  considerations,  which  must 
be  modified  or  removed  before  they  can  be  recon- 
ciled or  harmonized  to  any  considerable  degree. 
Some  of  them  had  existed  so  long  that  they  may 
almost   be  termed  innate  ideas.     Only  the  least 
important  of  them  were  of  recent  origin  or  the 
outgrowth  of  recent  events.     The  chief  of  these 
elements  of  antagonism  are  : 

i. — The  almost  ineradicable  belief  of  the  white 
people  of  the  South  that  the  Negro  is  an  in- 
ferior species  of  the  human  family  and  not 
fit  or  capable  to  exercise  joint-sovereignty 
with  the  white  race. 
2. — An  equally  firm  conviction  on  the  part  of  the 
colored  man  that  Slavery  was  a  flagrant 
wrong  to  the  slave,  and  that  those  who  per- 


A  Shattered  Idol.  8 1 

petrated  that  wrong  for  centuries  and  waged 
war  for  its  continuance  are  unfit  to  be  the 
judges  and  guardians  of  the  Negro's  rights 
as  a  man  and  as  a  citizen. 
3. — The  Southern  white  man  regards  the  law  which 
confers  upon  the  Negro  equal  political  power 
with  himself  as  an  affront  to  him  and  all  his 
race. 
4. — The  Negro  regards  the  defeat  of  his  political 
right    by  fraud  or  violence  as  a  continued 
oppression  and  a  constant  menace  of  greater 
evil  to  his  race. 
This  line  is  not  likely  to   be  blotted  out  or  to 
become  difficult  to  trace  in  centuries,  if  indeed  it 
ever  becomes  indistinct.     Tradition  and  the  law 
both  forbid  intermarriage  between  the  races.     As 
a  result  the  mulatto  is  stamped  in  his  very  birth 
with  the  mark  of  degradation,  and  his  social  rela- 
tions  are    restricted    to    the    inferior   race.     One 
eighth  of  colored  blood  makes  a  negro,  with  the 
presumption  against  him. 

In  like  manner  the  individual  who  asserts  the 
claims  of  the  colored  race  to  equality  of  right  and 
privilege  becomes  at  once  associated,  in  the  minds 
of  the  whites  of  the  South,  with  the  formerly  sub- 
ject-race.    He  is  regarded  as  a  renegade  and  trai- 


82  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

tor  to  his  race  and  color.  He  may  be  tolerated, 
but  he  is  never  forgiven.  In  quiet,  peaceful  times 
his  offense  may  seem  half-forgotten,  but  just  as 
soon  as  the  least  friction  is  developed  between  the 
races  he  must  stand  with  one  or  the  other.  It 
matters  not  which  may  be  right.  The  fact  of 
color  is  the  only  touchstone.  Perhaps  no  better 
illustration  of  this  could  be  given  than  the  well- 
known  fact  that  the  press  of  the  South  always  re- 
fers to  the  Republican  Party  as  "  the  Radicals," 
which  is  accounted  there  a  term  of  reproach  and 
derision.  To  withstand  the  torrent  of  detraction 
which  is  sure  to  be  turned  against  him,  such  a 
man  must  be  either  very  strong  in  his  convictions 
of  right,  or  very  callous  in  regard  to  the  opinions 
of  his  fellows.  Especially  will  this  fact  be  appar- 
ent when  we  consider  that  the  infamy  of  the  hus- 
band or  the  father  attaches  with  peculiar  intensity 
to  the  wife  or  the  daughter.  To  uphold  any  right 
of  the  negro  against  any  general  policy  favored 
and  maintained  by  the  bulk  of  the  white  race  is 
to  invite  the  hostility  of  "  his  own  people,"  and  to 
cover  all  of  his  family  with  the  odium  of  his  act. 
In  other  words,  the  white  man  who  at  the  South 
advocates  any  right  of  the  negro  which  the  mass 
of  the  white  race  is  not  willing  to  allow  becomes 


A  Shattered  Idol.  &$ 

thereby  tainted,  more  or  less  deeply,  with  the 
odium  attaching  to  what  is  deemed  a  hostile,  pre- 
suming, and  inferior  class.  If  his  advocacy  is  ac- 
tive and  ardent,  the  hostility  evoked  thereby  will 
be  manifested  in  almost  every  relation  which  he 
or  his  family  may  chance  to  sustain  to  their  white 
fellow-citizens.  If  it  is  merely  passive  and  theo- 
retical, very  few  will  believe  in  its  sincerity,  and  it 
will,  perhaps,  be  considered  more  whimsical  than 
atrocious. 

The  fact  that  outbreaks  and  disturbances  occur 
less  frequently  than  they  did  a  few  years  ago 
does  not  at  all  tend  to  show  that  the  line  of  de- 
markation  between  the  races  is  less  distinct  or 
the  feeling  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
whites  to  the  equal  right  and  privilege  of  the 
negro  any  less  intense  than  it  then  was.  It  only 
shows  that  the  weaker  race  have  yielded  for  the 
time  to  the  aggressions  of  the  stronger,  and  have 
ceased  in  a  great  measure  to  struggle  for  their 
rights.  To  suppose  that  they  have  done  it  will- 
ingly is  to  believe  them  to  be  animated  by  other 
than  human  motives.  To  the  negro,  emancipa- 
tion and  enfranchisement  were  mighty  strides 
toward  all  those  things  which  human  beings 
prize.      The  first  gave  to  him  control  of  himself, 


84  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  blandishments  of  home  and  family,  and 
opened  to  him  the  possibilities  of  ease,  wealth, 
and  luxury.  The  second,  in  effect,  enrolled  him 
among  sovereigns.  It  made  him  the  equal  in 
power  and  privilege  with  the  race  which  he  had 
envied  and  feared  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
It  is  useless  to  claim  that  such  advantages  were 
ever  willingly  yielded  by  any  people.  It  would  be 
natural  that  they  should  magnify  them  ;  should 
grow  boastful  and  insolent  toward  those  who  had 
once  held  them  in  bondage.  They  might  reason- 
ably be  so  proud  of  their  new  privileges  as  to 
awaken  disgust  in  the  minds  of  those  to  whom 
the  exercise  of  like  powers  had  become  instinct- 
ive. They  naturally  would  be  inclined  to  prize 
them  more  highly  because  of  their  very  newness. 
This  is  precisely  what  the  negro  did.  He  was 
from  the  first  punctilious  to  a  degree  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  political  duties.  Young  or  old, 
male  or  female,  the  duty  of  citizenship,  as 
they  understood  it,  seemed  to  be  forever  upper- 
most in  their  minds.  The  privilege  of  cast- 
ing a  ballot  was  one  they  would  no  more  think 
of  intermitting  than  the  ancient  Jew  would 
forget  his  annual  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem.  No 
difficulty  was  so  great,  nor  danger  so  imminent, 


A  Shattered  Idol.  85 

as  to  deter  them  from  going  to  the  polls  and 
depositing  their  ballots.  Many  a  man  now  living 
remembers  when  they  were  accustomed  to  leave 
their  homes  on  the  day  previous  and  camp  in 
the  woods  or  adjacent  fields  the  night  before  an 
election-day  in  order  that  they  might  not  miss 
this  greatest  privilege  they  had  ever  enjoyed. 
Many  thought  at  the  time  that  it  was  because 
they  expected  marvelous  results  to  accrue  to 
themselves  individually  thereby.  It  would  not 
have  been  strange  if  in  their  ignorance  that  had 
been  the  case,  yet  there  were  amazingly  few  cases 
in  which  they  were  not  entirely  content  with  the 
mere  fact  of  victory.  There  were  corrupt  and 
designing  ones  among  them  who  traded,  no  doubt, 
upon  actual  or  supposed  influence,  just  as  skill- 
fully as  their  more  enlightened  and  higher-toned 
exemplars  of  the  white  race  do.  But  as  a  rule, 
the  vote  of  the  negro,  until  it  was  suppressed  by 
violence  or  rendered  impotent  by  fraud,  wTas  cast 
with  more  singleness  of  purpose  and  less  of  per- 
sonal corruption  than  I  have  ever  witnessed 
among  white  men  in  any  part  of  the  country. 

From  1865  until  1879  tne  author  was  a  personal 
observer  of  the  conduct  of  the  negro  as  a  citizen 
and  a  voter.     He  was  known  as  an   active  and 


86  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

prominent  advocate  of  the  rights  of  the  colored 
man,  and  during  much  of  that  time  occupied  an 
official  position  that  brought  him  in  contact  with 
all  classes,  and  gave  him  opportunity  to  observe 
the  conduct  and  know  the  feeling  of  large  num- 
bers of  these  people  in  various  localities  through- 
out a  whole  State.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  say- 
that  during  the  whole  of  that  time  he  met  with 
and  was  cognizant  of  less  corrupt  and  selfish  im- 
portunity from  the  colored  voters  of  North  Caro- 
lina than  he  has  met  in  a  single  canvass  among 
the  white  voters  of  the  North.  It  must  be  re- 
membered, too,  that  these  men  were  poor — al- 
most too  poor  for  a  Northern  man  to  under- 
stand how  little  they  possessed.  They  might 
indeed  boast  of  carrying  "  sovereignty  under  the 
hat,"  for  their  hats  not  unfrequently  shadowed  all 
their  possessions.  To  such  men  the  temptation 
of  even  the  slightest  largess  was  vastly  greater 
than  the  Northern  voter  can  plead  as  an  excuse 
for  personal  corruption. 

That  such  a  people  willingly  or  lightly  surren- 
dered their  freedom  of  action  and  the  privileges  so 
highly  prized  is  too  absurd  for  any  one  to  believe, 
except  such  as  suppose  the  negro  without  the 
ordinary   motives    and    impulses     of    humanity. 


A  Shattered  Idol  87 

That  since  the  struggle  has  become  hopeless 
some  of  them  have  bartered  the  ballots  they  felt 
to  be  powerless  for  good  or  evil  in  their  hands  is 
unquestionably  true,  and  this  is  one  of  the  influ- 
ences which  have  tended  to  make  the  negro  of 
to-day  a  more  dangerous  element  of  our  national 
life  than  he  has  ever  been  before.  The  negro  has 
not  forgotten  either  the  rights  or  privileges  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  national  legislation.  The 
more  completely  he  is  debarred  from  their  exer- 
cise the  more  deep  and  irremovable  becomes  his 
conviction  that  the  white  race  of  the  South  is  his 
enemy.  He  has,  with  some  exceptions,  kept  his 
faith  in  the  white  people  of  the  North,  simply  be- 
cause it  was  from  the  North  and  through  the 
action  of  the  people  of  the  North  that  liberty  first 
came  to  him.  He  fully  realizes  that  he  has  been 
neglected,  betrayed,  and  deceived  by  the  same  peo- 
ple over  and  over  again  since  his  emancipation,  and 
that,  of  the  white  garment  of  liberty  then  bestowed 
upon  him,  only  some  tattered  shreds  remain  ;  but 
with  rare  perspicacity  he  generally  attributes  this 
fact,  not  to  a  deliberate  purpose  on  the  part  of 
the  Northern  people  to  deceive  and  betray,  but 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  themselves  deceived  by 
the  representations  of  the  Southern  whites. 


The  White   Spaces   Show   Proportions. 

A  "Treason  of  the  Blood." 


rT^HE  sentiment  of  prejudice  or  hostility 
-■"  against  the  colored  race  on  the  part  of 
the  whites  of  the  South  is  generally  considered 
one  of  those  "  results  of  the  war"  which  it  is 
supposed  need  only  to  be  let  alone  to  cure  them- 
selves. In  truth  the  war  had  little  or  nothing 
to  do  with  the  matter.  The  feeling  which  is 
termed  race-prejudice  or  antipathy  is  not  by  any 
means  peculiar  to  the  white  people  of  the  South, 
nor  is  it  in  any  sense  dependent  upon  recent 
historical  events.     The  failure  of   the   Confeder- 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  89 

ate  cause  and  the  consequent  elevation  of  the 
negro  may  have  brought  into  bolder  relief  the 
pre-existing  characteristics  of  the  contrasted 
races.  So,  too,  it  is  unquestionable  that  the  in- 
discreet exuberance  of  the  African  in  the  first 
possession  of  his  new-found  liberty  may  have 
tended  to  present  more  sharply  to  the  minds  of 
the  Southern  white  people  the  difference  of  race 
upon  which  they  had  always  insisted,  and  which 
the  new  political  movement  that  followed  the 
war  may  have  seemed  like  an  attempt  to  over- 
throw. It  is,  however,  only  that  which  has 
always  occurred  in  history  when  two  races,  sepa- 
rated by  an  insurmountable  barrier,  have  occu- 
pied the  same  territory,  neither  being  subject  to 
the  other.  This  feeling  of  prejudice  or  antipathy 
existing  between  two  distinctly  marked  races 
who  are  not  only  joint  occupants  of  the  same 
territory,  but  so  closely  intermingled  that  each 
constitutes  an  appreciable  and  important  part 
of  every  subdivision  of  the  community,  is  not 
in  itself  a  matter  of  blame.  Nor  does  its  exist- 
ence imply  any  lack  of  moral  tone  on  the  part 
of  those  who  entertain  such  feeling.  It  is  no 
fault  of  the  Southern  whites  that  they  regard 
the  colored  man  not  only  as  their  inferior  at  the 


90  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

present  time,  but  as  radically  and  irredeemably 
incapable  of  the  same  elevation  and  development. 
It  is  hardly  surprising  that,  judging  from  the 
docility  of  this  race  in  slavery  and  from  the  lack 
of  inherent  impulses  towards  civilization  and 
development  as  manifested  by  its  history,  they 
should  have  arrived  at  this  conclusion.  Indeed, 
it  seems  much  more  remarkable  that  the  peo- 
ple of  the  North  should  have  so  generally  ar- 
rived at  the  contrary  conclusion.  Looking  upon 
the  negro  as  he  presented  himself  to  the  eye 
of  the  ethnologist  and  historian  in  i860,  it 
appears  now  a  most  remarkable  thing  that  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  most  intelligent  and  con- 
scientious people  of  the  North  believed  in  the 
capacity  of  the  colored  man  for  self-support  and 
ultimate  self-direction.  It  is  not  at  all  likely, 
however,  that  anything  less  than  the  events  of 
the  war,  the  signal  courage  manifested  by  indi- 
viduals of  the  colored  race,  and  the  marvelous 
devotion  of  all  of  them  to  the  cause  and  persons 
of  their  deliverers,  together  with  the  strange  and 
anomalous  relation  in  which  they  stood  to  their 
former  masters,  would  have  induced  the  more 
conservative  elements  of  the  Northern  people 
to  consent  to  their  enfranchisement  even  after 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  91 

their  emancipation  had  become  an  accomplished 
fact. 

The  prejudice  of  race,  whether  it  be  a  natural 
instinct  or  an  acquired  habit  of  mind,  is  a  matter 
of  very  little  importance  so  far  as  the  result  is 
concerned.  Regarded  from  one  point  of  view 
it  is  a  disease.  Looked  at  from  another  it  is  a 
natural  instinctive  feeling.  In  either  case  the 
remedy  is  the  same.  If  it  be  an  instinct,  the 
highest  intelligence  is  necessary  to  restrain  its 
manifestation  within  due  and  proper  limits  and 
to  prevent  it  from  endangering  the  public  peace 
or  injuriously  affecting  the  natural  rights  of  those 
in  relation  to  whom  it  exists.  If  it  be  a  dis- 
ease, the  same  modicum  of  intelligence  is  re- 
quired not  only  to  limit  its  manifestations,  but 
ultimately  to  eradicate  and  destroy  it.  So  far  as 
this  book  is  concerned  it  is  a  matter  of  entire  in- 
difference whether  the  prejudice  of  the  white  race 
for  the  negro  is  a  matter  of  instinct  or  of  culti- 
vation. Whether  it  is  an  inherent  ineradicable 
animosity  planted  in  the  breast  of  the  white  man 
for  some  inscrutable  reason,  or  whether  it  is  a 
natural  and  divine  provision  to  prevent  the  ad- 
mixture of  the  races  and  carry  into  effect  some 
mysterious  purpose  of  Providence  by  which  the 


92  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

great  classes  of  the  human  family  shall  forever  be 
kept  separate  and  distinct,  or  simply  a  sentiment 
engendered  by  centuries  of  association  in  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave,  is  a  matter  alto- 
gether foreign  to  the  subject  which  we  have  in 
hand.  In  either  case  it  remains  a  simple  fact, 
a  fact  for  which  neither  the  white  man  nor  the 
colored  man  of  the  South  can  be  held  morally  or 
individually  responsible,  but  one  which  should  be 
carefully  and  calmly  considered  in  all  its  various 
relations  in  order  that  serious  and  dangerous 
consequences  which  might  otherwise  arise  there- 
from shall  be  duly  foreseen  and  securely 
guarded  against.  Whether  it  be  a  natural  in- 
stinct or  acquired  prejudice  the  remedy  against 
its  dangerous  manifestation  is  the  same  :  to  wit, 
the  intelligence  of  the  individuals  of  both  races. 
A  clear  perception  of  the  perils  incident  to  both 
the  intermingled  races  from  any  extended  con- 
flict between  them  is  the  only  thing  that  will 
restrain  the  superior  race  from  oppression,  or  the 
inferior  from  revolt.  We  shall  consider  race- 
prejudice,  therefore,  simply  as  a  fact  for  which  the 
individual  affected  by  it  is  only  in  a  modified 
sense  responsible,  which  of  itself  constitutes  no 
imputation    upon     his    morality,   civilization,   or 


A  "Treason  of  the  Bloody  93 

purity  of  purpose ;  but  which  needs  to  be  recog- 
nized and  understood  in  all  its  relations  as  well 
by  the  superior  as  by  the  inferior  race,  in  order 
that  serious  consequences  may  not  arise  from 
the  intimate  admixture  of  the  races  and  their 
constant  exposure  to  disturbing  and  inflamma- 
tory influences. 

No  two  free  races  thus  distinctly  separated  by 
color  and  by  marked  natural  characteristics  have 
ever  yet  dwelt  side  by  side  without  conflict. 
That  they  should  ever  do  so  is  accounted  by 
very  many  an  impossibility.  Every  Southern 
writer  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  from  the  very 
first  moment  when  the  conflict  of  ideas  began 
to  stir  the  Western  world  to  universal  thought 
upon  the  subject,  has  laid  it  down  as  a  basis- 
principle  that  two  such  races  cannot,  by  any 
possibility,  dwell  together  in  freedom  and  in 
peace. 

Upon  this  subject  we  quote  the  words  of  Prof. 
E.  W.  Gilliam,  writing  from  a  Southern  stand- 
point and  with  a  strong  Southern  bias,  in  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly  for  February,  1883.  His 
views  are  important,  not  merely  from  the  terse 
and  epigrammatic  form  in  which  they  are  set,  but 
because  they  represent  clearly  and  distinctly  the 


94  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

feelings  of  a  man  fully  in  sympathy  with  both  the 
future  and  the  past  of  the  whites  at  the  South : 

"The  second  factor  in  our  argument  is  the  impossi- 
bility of  fusion  between  whites  and  blacks.  The  latter 
have  been,  and  must  continue  to  be,  a  distinct  and  alien 
race.  The  fusion  of  races  is  the  resultant  from  social 
equality  and  intermarriage,  and  the  barrier  to  this  is  here 
insurmountable.  The  human  species  presents  three  grand 
varieties,  marked  off  by  color — white,  yellow,  and  black. 
One  at  the  first,  in  origin  and  color,  the  race  multiplied 
and  spread,  and  separate  sections,  settled  in  different  lati- 
tudes, took  on — under  climatic  conditions  acting  with  ab- 
normal force  in  that  early  and  impressionable  period  of 
the  races 's  age — took  on,  we  say,  different  hues,  which, 
as  the  race  grew  and  hardened,  crystallized  into  perma- 
nent characteristics.  Social  affinity  exists  among  the 
families  of  these  three  groups.  The  groups  themselves 
stand  rigidly  apart.  The  Irish,  German,  French,  etc., 
whp  come  to  these  shores,  readily  intermarry  among 
themselves  and  with  the  native  population.  Within  a 
generation  or  two  the  sharpness  of  national  feature  disap- 
pears, and  the  issue  is  the  American  whose  mixed  blood 
is  the  country's  foremost  hope.  //  cannot  be — a  fusion 
like  this  between  whites  and  blacks.  Account  for  it  as 
we  may,  the  antipathy  is  a  palpable  fact  which  no  one 
fails  to  recognize — an  antipathy  not  less  strong  among 
the  Northern  than  among  the  Southern  whites.  How- 
ever the  former  may,  on  the  score  of  matters  political, 
profess  themselves  special  friends  to  the  blacks,  the  ques- 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  95 

tion  of  intermarriage  and  social  equality,  when  brought 
to  practical  test,  they  will  not  touch  with  the  end  of  the 
little  finger.  Whether  it  be  that  the  blacks,  because  of 
their  former  condition  of  servitude,  are  regarded  as  a  per- 
manently degraded  class ;  whether  it  be  that  the  whites, 
from  their  historic  eminence,  are  possessed  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  superiority  which  spurns  alliance — the  fact 
that  fusion  is  impossible  no  one  in  his  senses  can  deny." 

The  conclusion  at  which  Prof.  Gilliam  arrives  is 
indisputable,  as  he  says,  "  by  any  man  in  his 
senses"  during  any  period  with  regard  to  which 
speculation  may  be  properly  and  reasonably  ex- 
tended. Certain  it  is  that  the  influences  now  ex- 
istent will  render  his  words  as  true  a  hundred 
years  from  now  as  they  are  to-day.  What  change 
may  possibly  be  wrought  in  the  tone  and  senti- 
ment of  generations  more  remote  and  under  cir- 
cumstances which  cannot  now  be  foreseen,  it  is, 
of  course,  impossible  to  estimate.  Looking  at  the 
subject  from  a  standpoint  diametrically  opposed 
in  every  respect  both  to  the  intellectual  bias  and 
political  inclination  of  Prof.  Gilliam,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  indorse  his  views  in  this  respect  almost 
without  the  least  modification. 

This  feeling  does  not  in  any  sense  necessitate 
or  imply  a  sentiment  of  hostility,  either  individual 


g6  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

or  collective,  upon  the  part  of  one  race  toward 
the  other.  The  Southern  white  man  who  says 
that  he  feels  kindly  toward  the  negro  is  entitled 
to  the  utmost  credence,  even  though  it  may  be 
shown  by  irrefragable  testimony  that  he  has  ex- 
erted unlawful  violence  to  prevent  the  negro  from 
the  exercise  of  a  legal  right.  He  simply  regards 
the  negro  as  an  inferior,  with  an  inherited  belief 
which  amounts  almost  to  an  instinct,  even  if  it  be 
not  actually  instinctive.  He  wishes  only  good  to 
that  inferior ;  has  no  desire  to  do  him  harm,  to 
lessen  his  comfort  or  prevent  his  success,  within 
what  he  deems  the  proper  sphere  of  his  existence. 
He  is  a  Christian  man,  and  he  desires  to  see  the 
colored  man  improve  in  morals,  industry,  and  the 
virtues  of  a  Christian  life.  All  these  things  he 
may  most  earnestly  and  sincerely  desire  for  the 
colored  man  whom  he  calls,  with  effusive  and  per- 
haps delusive  warmth,  "  our  brother  in  black."  It 
is  only  when  the  necessity  arises  for  considering 
this  race  as  the  equal  of  the  white  race  in  power, 
in  freedom,  and  in  opportunity,  that  we  discover 
that  beneath  this  sentiment  of  kindness  lies  the 
indefinable  feeling  that  the  colored  man  may  not, 
must  not,  shall  not,  stand  upon  the  same  level  of 
right  and  power  as  the  white.     It  matters   not 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood"  97 

how  good,  how  kind,  how  charitable  the  man  may 
be  in  an  overwhelming  majority  of  cases,  you  will 
find  that  he  has,  at  bottom,  an  ineradicable  hos- 
tility to  the  colored  man  as  a  political  integer, 
simply  because  he  is  a  Negro. 

It  is  not  strange  that  this  feeling  should  exist. 
The  very  fact  of  difference  of  race  and  color  is 
not  one  lightly  to  be  disregarded.  There  are  in- 
stances in  the  world's  history  in  which  two  types 
of  the  same  race  have  dwelt  side  by  side  for  cen- 
turies, almost,  without  intermingling  of  blood. 
There  are  cases  in  which  inherited  antipathies 
have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  gene- 
ration for  centuries  between  two  peoples  having 
the  same  colored  skin  and  similar  casts  of  fea- 
tures, each  preserving  their  own  peculiar  lan- 
guage, customs  and  habits  of  life,  and  maintain- 
ing between  them  an  almost  bottomless  gulf  of 
separation.  Between  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  the 
Caucasian  of  the  temperate  zone  and  all  other 
races,  this  feeling  of  repulsion  seems  always  to 
have  been  peculiarly  strong.  There  is  hardly  an 
instance  to  be  found  in  which  this  color-line  has 
been  successfully  passed  over  by  either  race,  no 
matter  how  long  they  have  lived  in  juxtaposition. 
That  the  whites  should   not  willingly  and  volun- 


gS  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

tarily  disregard  this  line  of  demarcation  is  not 
strange.  It  was  by  no  means  an  inconsiderable 
impulse  at  the  outset,  and  has  been  greatly 
strengthened  by  centuries  of  association  in  the 
relation  of  master  and  slave,  superior  and  inferior, 
ruler  and  worker.  It  is  altogether  wrong  to  sup- 
pose that,  as  a  rule,  the  Southern  slave-master  was 
cruel  to  his  slave,  beyond  the  mere  fact  of  restrain- 
ing him  of  his  liberty  and  depriving  him  of  his 
rights.  Not  only  the  ordinary  feeling  of  kindness 
which  subsists  between  man  and  man  prevailed 
with  them,  but  the  impulse  of  self-interest  tended 
in  the  same  direction.  The  sentiment  of  race- 
prejudice  or  animosity  is  not  at  all  akin  to  any 
feeling  of  personal  hostility  or  individual  dislike. 
It  is  only  a  mutual  shrinking  away  from  each 
other  of  distinctly  marked  types — a  crystallization 
about  different  centers,  the  claim  of  peculiar 
privileges  or  the  reverse,  because  of  distinctive 
characteristics,  common  to  great  masses.  It  is 
only  that  feeling  which  marks  off  into  two  dis- 
tinct bodies  the  people  occupying  the  same  terri- 
tory, by  insurmountable  and  invisible  barriers. 
Race-prejudice,  if  it  be  possible  to  overcome  it  at 
all,  if  it  can  ever  be  eliminated,  will  only  disap- 
pear after  the  lapse  not  of  years  but  of  genera- 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  99 

tions  and  centuries.  At  present  it  is  not  likely  to 
diminish  perceptibly  in  strength  and  influence 
upon  the  contrasted  cases  during  any  period  that 
may  be  regarded  as  within  the  influences  of  the 
present.  It  may  be  repressed  and  its  manifesta- 
tions may  be  so  modified  by  peculiar  influences 
as  to  be  comparatively  innocuous,  but  there  is  no 
prospect  of  its  elimination  for  centuries,  if  indeed 
it  be  possible  that  it  should  ever  disappear. 

It  is  worthy  of  consideration,  too,  that  this  feel- 
ing has  another  side  which  is  daily  coming  to  be 
of  more  and  more  importance.  The  sentiment  of 
the  colored  man  toward  the  white  man  according 
to  the  theory  of  slavery  was  one  of  filial  regard 
and  dependency.  According  to  the  theory  of  the 
slave  it  was  one  of  hopeless  helplessness  and  in- 
eradicable distrust.  The  colored  man  since  his 
enslavement  in  America  could  not  help  regarding 
the  white  man  as  having  deprived  him  of  certain 
natural  rights.  We  speak  now  of  the  colored  man 
as  animated  by  the  ordinary  impulses  of  human- 
ity. It  is  not  worth  while  to  consider  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  instinct  of  liberty  and  the  im- 
pulse of  self-control  is  as  strong  in  the  African  as 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  or  not.  In  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  varying  of  course  with  temper  and  intelli- 


ioo  An  Appeal  to  Cczsar. 

gence,  the  two  races  are  and  must  be  controlled 
by  the  same  general  laws.  The  slave  never  forgot 
his  enslavement.  The  colored  man,  whose  man- 
hood had  been  stripped  away  from  his  life,  never 
forgot  that  the  power  which  did  this  was  that  of 
the  white  man.  He  may  have  believed,  almost, 
that  it  was  right  that  he  should  be  thus  sub- 
jugated. There  may,  possibly,  have  been  instances 
in  which  religious  feeling  was  so  strongly  wrought 
upon  as  to  produce  in  the  mind  of  the  slave  the 
conviction  that  God  had  designed  him  for  nothing 
but  slavery,  and  there  unquestionably  were  thou- 
sands of  cases  in  which  the  attachment  of  the 
slave  to  the  master  or  the  master's  child  was 
stronger  than  the  instinct  of  life  itself.  So,  too, 
the  slave  would  trust  implicitly  the  master's  word 
in  all  matters  that  did  not  touch  his  own  liberty  and 
right.  Upon  this  subject  he  listened  to  him  with 
incredulity.  Down  deep  in  the  heart  of  the  slave 
dwelt  always  this  one  thought  :  "lam  not  a  free 
man  because  the  white  man  has  made  me  a  slave." 
This  feeling  grew  in  strength  with  the  inevita- 
ble increase  of  the  slave  in  intelligence.  Though 
the  spelling-book  was  a  sealed  mystery  to  his  eyes, 
while  it  was  a  felony  for  any  one  to  teach  him  to 
read  and  write,  while  instruction  in  the  arts  and 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  101 

sciences  was  forbidden  him,  yet  it  was  impossible 
for  the  American  negro  to  be  brought  in  contact 
with  the  wonderful  life  of  the  New  World  without 
growing  unconsciously  in  strength  and  knowledge  ; 
so  that  the  slave  of  the  period  of  the  war  differed, 
perhaps,  quite  as  much  from  his  African  congener 
as  did  the  master  from  the  type  of  Englishman 
from  which  he  was  evolved. 

This  feeling  was  at  the  root  of  that  wide-spread 
belief  among  the  slaves  that  a  day  of  Jubilee 
would  come — that  sooner  or  later  God  would  in 
some  mysterious  way  work  out  their  deliverance 
from  bondage.  Already  for  half  a  century,  or 
more  perhaps,  it  had  been  taking  root  and  spread- 
ing throughout  the  whole  mass  of  the  colored  pop- 
ulation of  the  South,  leavening  the  whole  body 
with  a  hope  of  something  in  the  future  distinctly 
favorable  to  the  race,  as  such.  When  the  War  of 
Rebellion  began,  it  had  not  yet  grown  so  strong 
as  to  demand  active  co-operation  upon  their  part 
with  the  Federal  power,  but  as  the  struggle  pro- 
gressed and  they  saw  in  its  outcome  the  possible 
fulfillment  of  their  hopes,  the  race  attested  its 
manhood,  and,  under  the  inspiration  of  this  feel- 
ing, did  worthy  battle  for  that  power  which  prom- 
ised the  accomplishment  of  their  desire. 


io2  An  Appeal  to  Ctzsar. 

While  it  was  true  that  the  conflict  which  re- 
sulted in  their  freedom  was  between  two  hostile 
sections  of  the  white  race,  and  that  they  owed 
their  emancipation  to  the  Caucasian  just  as  cer- 
tainly as  they  had  previously  owed  their  enslave- 
ment to  that  race,  there  was  still  this  difference : 
the  power  which  freed  was  to  them  a  foreign 
power  ;  the  power  which  enslaved,  a  domestic  one. 
That  they  divided  the  world  into  three  classes, 
"white  folks,  niggers,  and  Yanks,"  was  by  no 
means  unnatural  or  unphilosophical;  and  in  a  great 
degree  the  distinction  still  prevails.  The  power 
with  which  they  finally  joined  hands  for  their  own 
liberation  was,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  one 
outside  of  the  life  of  which  they  constituted  a 
part.  The  "  white  people"  to  them  meant,  and 
must  always  mean,  those  by  whom  they  are  sur- 
rounded and  with  whom  the  relations  of  daily  life 
are  to  be  maintained. 

Between  these  two  classes  the  distance  has 
greatly  increased  since  the. close  of  the  war,  and 
it  must  continue  to  increase  as  the  daily  lives  of 
the  individuals  diverge  more  and  more  from  each 
other.  Slavery  was  a  domestic  institution.  More 
or  less  the  master's  chattels  were  a  part  of  his 
household    and  became  touched  with   his   senti- 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood." 


\o 


ments  and  feelings.  The  domestic  servants  were 
the  depositaries  of  all  the  secrets  of  the  family. 
Its  most  sacred  mysteries  were  unveiled  to  them. 
These  intimate  personal  relations  served  to  keep 
out  of  sight  during  the  existence  of  slavery  that 
feeling  of  race-antipathy  which  the  servile  relation 
was  all  the  time  actually  strengthening  between 
those  affected  by  these  relations.  When  the 
freedman  began  to  establish  his  own  home-circle, 
to  build  for  himself  a  household  about  his  own 
hearth,  however  humble,  the  distance  between  the 
whites  and  blacks,  though  in  fact  very  greatly  di- 
minished, seemed  to  have  been  as  greatly  in- 
creased. 

One  of  the  chief  absurdities  that  marks  the  or- 
dinary belief  in  regard  to  this  matter  is  the  gen- 
eral impression  that  in  the  course  of  a  generation 
or  so  the  descendants  of  the  American  slave  will 
have  forgotten  all  about  Slavery.  Nothing  could 
be  more  at  variance  with  the  universal  testimony 
of  history  upon  this  point.  A  race  which  has  been 
subjected  to  humiliation  and  oppression  by  an- 
other race  retains  the  memory  of  wrong  long  after 
all  sense  of  personal  grievance  has  been  lost.  The 
fierce  rage  of  the  Israelites  against  their  Egyptian 
oppressors  lasted  for  centuries  after  they  had  es- 


104  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

caped  from  the  power  of  Pharaoh.  Even  in  private 
life  the  tradition  of  wrong  done  to  the  father  often 
produces  a  bitterer  animosity  on  the  part  of  the 
children  than  in  the  mind  of  the  injured  party. 
A  hundred  years  hence  the  hardships  and  wrong 
of  slavery  will  constitute  a  stronger  impulse  to 
united  action  on  the  part  of  the  colored  race  than 
they  do  to-day.  It  would  be  inconsistent  with 
every  principle  of  human  nature  if,  even  after  the 
lapse  of  centuries,  the  colored  orator  and  poet  did 
not  dwell  upon  the  wrongs  of  their  forefathers 
with  a  fervor  and  intensity  that  would  surprise  the 
recipient  of  the  wrongs  described.  The  colored 
man  who  to-day  looks  back  upon  slavery  with 
feelings  very  far  removed  from  unmixed  bitterness 
will  have  great-grandchildren  to  whom  the  wrongs 
which  he  has  suffered  will  constitute  a  ceaseless 
impulse  to  concerted  action  with  their  fellows  in 
the  interests  of  their  race. 

Besides  this,  it  is  an  inflexible  rule  of  develop- 
ment that  the  inferior  class  when  free  has  always 
an  upward  tendency  and  inclination  to  rise  and 
become,  sooner  or  later,  the  dominant  power. 
The  slave  has  nothing  to  hope  for  and  no  impulse 
to  exertion;  but  no  sooner  does  he  become  free 
than  the  avenues  to  wealth  and  ambition  open  more 


A  "  Treason  of  the  Blood."  105 

or  less  clearly  for  him.  It  may  be  generations  be- 
fore the  race  is  able  to  improve  its  new-found  op- 
portunity. It  may  be  that  but  one  colored  man 
in  a  State  has  achieved  financial  independence  in 
a  decade,  yet  that  one  man  is  an  example  to  all 
others,  constantly  stimulating  them  to  renewed 
exertion.  It  may  be  that  in  a  whole  State  but 
one  or  two  colored  men  have  won  their  way  into 
the  mystic  arena  of  the  bar,  and  even  these  may 
be  far  from  encouraging  examples  of  forensic 
ability,  yet  never  one  of  them  opens  his  lips  in 
court  that  his  example  does  not  inspire  some  col- 
ored boy  that  listens  to  do  as  he  has  done.  The 
same  inclination  to  stand  by  each  other  and  to 
make  common  cause  in  matters  pertaining  to  the 
race,  has  led  the  people  to  associate  together  in 
churches  of  their  own,  their  own  lodges  and  pro- 
tective unions,  and  the  law  has  built  for  them  a 
barrier  around  the  schools.  The  freedman  of  the 
South  is  distinctly  a  negro  from  his  birth  and  in 
every  relation  of  life.  It  is  the  chief  element  in 
every  phase  of  his  existence.  Religion,  that  is 
supposed  to  be  the  great  mollifier  of  savage  in- 
fluences, has  become  in  his  case  the  promoter  of 
differences.  The  slave,  in  the  main,  went  with 
his  master  to  church.     In  a  city  of  ten  thousand 


106  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

people   you  will  find   to-day    hardly  ten    colored 
faces  in  the  white  congregations. 

This  mutual  isolation  of  the  races  must  of  ne- 
cessity constantly  increase.  Already  there  are 
but  two  important  relations  of  life  in  which  the 
negro  mingles  with  the  white  man  on  anything 
like  a  basis  of  equality.  The  one  is  as  a  laborer, 
where,  indeed,  his  position  is  not  equality,  but 
superiority.  The  negro  is  par  excellence  the 
laborer  of  the  South.  The  white  man  is  com- 
pelled to  work  beside  him,  and  feels  himself  hu- 
miliated by  the  fact.  The  other  place  where  they 
are  supposed  to  meet  upon  the  level  of  right  is  at 
the  ballot-box,  where  the  white  man  regards  him 
as  an  intruder.  The  colored  man,  as  he  goes 
farther  away  from  the  wrongs  of  slavery  with  the 
lapse  of  time,  will  feel  all  the  more  keenly  the 
disabilities  that  still  remain,  and  will  become 
rrfore  and  more  suspicious  of  the  race  to  which 
he  not  unnaturally  attributes  the  woes  of  him- 
self and  his  ancestors.  The  white  man,  as  he 
watches  what  he  deems  the  aggressions  of  the 
colored  man,  his  acquisition  of  wealth  and  power, 
and  his  assumption  of  independent  relations  for 
himself  and  his  race,  will  naturally  be  impelled 
still  more  strongly  to  maintain  his  own  actual  or 


A  "Treason  of  the  Bloody         107 

fancied  superiority  by  whatever  means  may  be 
necessary  effectually  to  maintain  a  "  white  man's 
government"  and  the  white  man's  right  to  rule 
throughout  every  State  of  the  South. 

If,  therefore,  the  existing  influences  and  forces 
which  govern  and  control  Southern  life  shall  con- 
tinue in  their  present  relations,  the  point  of  gen- 
eral conflict  must  be  reached  sooner  or  later. 
The  negro's  struggles  for  equality  of  right  and 
recognition  as  a  potent  factor  in  public  affairs 
must  some  time  become  organized,  general,  and 
irresistible  except  by  overwhelming  force.  At 
the  same  time  the  white  man's  resolution  to  keep 
him  still  in  an  inferior  position,  growing  stronger 
and  stronger  by  repeated  successes,  must  eventu- 
ally result  in  such  organized  repression  as  can 
be  met  only  by  organized  retaliation.  Whether 
there  is  any  remedy  which  may  avert  this  catas- 
trophe it  behooves  us  earnestly  to  inquire.  If 
something  be  not  done,  and  done  quickly,  the  re- 
sult is  inevitable. 


Too  True  an  Evil. 


r  I  ^HE  imminency  of  this  peril  will,  perhaps, 
-*■  be  better  understood  when  we  consider  the 
physical  relations  of  the  two  races  in  that  region 
which  we  call  the  South,  or  those  States  in  which 
slavery  still  existed  in  the  year  i860. 

The  first  and  simplest  view  of  this  subject 
is  that  which  we  obtain  from  the  mere  state- 
ment of  the  fact  that  there  were  in  1880  in 
the  Southern  States,  including  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  the  Territory  of  New  Mexico, 
12460,248  whites  and  6,039,657  colored  inhabit- 


Too   True  an  Evil.  109 

ants.  In  other  words,  in  these  seventeen  States 
there  are  in  round  numbers  one  half  as  many  col- 
ored people  as  whites — or  one  colored  to  every 
two  white  men.  This  fact,  however,  is  only  the 
beginning  of  the  story.  In  order  to  understand 
the  true  relations  of  the  races  occupying  this  sec- 
tion, it  is  necessary-  to  consider  the  proportion  of 
whites  and  blacks  in  each  of  the  political  com- 
munities of  which  it  consists.  It  will  be  readily 
perceived  that  if  the  proportion  which  applies 
to  the  whole  should  apply  also  to  each  of  the 
States  composing  the  South,  and  throughout  the 
whole  extent  of  this  territory  there  were  the  same 
even  ratio  between  the  respective  numbers  of  the 
races,  the  question  would  be  greatly  simplified. 
All  that  we  should  need  to  consider  then  would 
be  the  probability  of  serious  collision  between 
the  races,  or  a  want  of  harmonious  development 
and  prosperity,  resulting  from  the  mutual  preju- 
dice of  the  two  or  the  aggressions  of  either  when 
intermixed  in  the  ratio  of  one  black  to  two 
whites.  If,  however,  that  ratio  varies  in  different 
States,  the  question  grows  more  and  more  im- 
portant as  the  disparity  in  numbers  grows  less 
and  less,  or  the  numerical  predominance  of  the 
colored  race  renders  the  assumption   of    a  right 


no  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

to  dominate  on  the  part  of  the  whites  increas- 
ingly absurd  when  tried  by  the  standard  which 
nominally  prevails  in  our  republic ;  to  wit,  the 
right  of  the  majority  to  rule. 

The  following  table  shows  the  number  and  per- 
centage of  each  race  in  each  one  of  the  Southern 
States,  according  to  the  census  of   1880  : 


TABLE  A. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Each    Race  resident  in  each  of  the 
Southern  States  in  1880. 


States. 

Total 
Population. 

1,262.505 
802.525 
146,608 

269,493 
1,542. 1S0 
1.648,690 

939.946 

934.943 
i.i3i,597 
2,168,380 
1,399.750 

995.577 
1,542,359 
L59i,749 
1,512,565 

6i8,457 

Whites. 

Per 

cent. 

Colored. 

Per 
cent. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

662.185 

591,531 
120,160 
142,605 

52.3 
73-7 
81.9 

52. O 

600,103 

210,666 

26,442 

126,690 

725,133 
271,451 
483.655 

210,230 

650.291 

145,350 
531,277 

604.332 

403,151 

393, 3S4 
631,616 

25.8S6 

47-5 
26.2 
18. 1 

47-i 
47.0 
16.4 

5i-4 
22.4 

57-5 
6-7 
37-9 
60.6 
26.1 
24.7 
41.7 
4.1 

Georgia 

816,906   1  «2.«C 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

1,337,179 

454-954 

724,693 

479.398 

2,022.826 

867,242 

39i.!05 

1,13s.  831 

1. 197.237 

8So,8s8 

592,537 

8l. I 

48.4 

77  4 
41.4 

93-3 
61.9 

39-3 

73-9 
75-2 
58.8 
97-4 

North  Carolina.  .  . 
South  Carolina.  .  . 

Tennessee 

Texas 

West  Virginia. . . . 

Total 

18,507,324 

12,420,247 

Av.  p.c. 
67.I 

6,039.657 

Av.  p.c. 

32.5 

A-  brief  examination  of  this  table  will  show 
that  these  States  may  be  divided  into  two  classes, 
the  comparison  of  which  may  hereafter  prove  in- 


Too   True  an  Evil. 


1 1 1 


structive  in  connection^with  other  facts  that  will 
be  presented.  The  first  of  these  classes  includes 
those  States  in  which  the  colored  population 
falls  below  the  general  average  of  the  Southern 
States,  or  in  which,  from  the  operation  of  natural 
and  existent  causes,  it  may  be  regarded  as  un- 
likely to  exceed  its  present  limit  for  a  consider- 
able period,  unless  by  the  operation  of  some  mi- 
gratory impulse  among  the  colored  population  of 
other  States. 

TABLE  B. 

X umber  and  Peixentage  of  Each  Race  in  the  States  in  which  the 
Proportion  of  Colored  Inhabitants  does  not  exceed  the  General 
Average  of  the  South,  or  by  the  action  of  natural  causes  cannot 
be  expected  to  increase. 


States.                       Whites. 

Per  cent.        Colored. 

Per  cent. 

Delaware 120.160 

Maryland 724.693 

West  Virginia 502  537 

Kentucky 1,377,179 

81 
77 
97 
Si 

93 
73 

75 

9             26.442 
4           210.230 
4             25,SS6 

1  271,451 
3           145.350 
7           210,666 

2  393  384 

18. 1 
22.4 

4.1 
16.4 

6-7 
26.2 
24.7 
26.  T 

Arkansas 591,531 

Texas 1,197,237 

Tennessee 1.13S  S31 

Total 7,674,994 

Av'age  p.  c. 

Si.S        1,686,560 

Av'age  p.  c. 
16.9 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  table  includes  all 
of  those  States  generally  known  as  "Border 
States."     In  one  of  them,  Arkansas,  the  present 


1 1 2  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ratio  of  colored  to  whites  is  somewhat  greater 
than  the  average  in  all  the  Southern  States. 
Certain  facts  connected  with  its  location  and  sur- 
roundings, however,  which  are  to  be  more  fully 
developed  hereafter,  render  it  probable  that  this 
ratio  can  hardly  be  expected  greatly  to  increase 
for  a  considerable  period.  It  has  upon  the 
north  and  south,  respectively,  the  States  o-f  Mis- 
souri and  Texas,  in  each  of  which  the  propor- 
tion of  colored  to  white  inhabitants  is  compara- 
tively small,  and  in  which  the  influences  and  de- 
velopment tend  rather  to  reduction  than  increase 
of  this  proportion.  It  is  in  the  way,  too,  of 
whatever  Northern  immigration  passes  down  the 
Mississippi  to  find  lodgment  upon  its  Western 
bank.  It  is  well  known  that  the  roving  spirit  of 
the  pioneer  does  not  incline  him  to  a  permanent 
settlement  in  that  State  which  is  nearest  to  his 
own.  As  Missouri,  despite  the  great  emigration 
of  her  own  natives,  is  so  rapidly  filling  up,  and 
as  Texas  is  coming  to  be  regarded  as  peculiarly 
the  domain  of  the  "  cattle-kings,"  rather  than  a 
desirable  location  for  the  small  farmer,  it  is  but 
natural  that  much  of  the  immigration  from  the 
North  which  has  hitherto  sought  these  States 
should  content  itself  with  the  one  which  lies  be- 


Too   True  an  Evil. 


1 1 


tween,  and  come  in  and  occupy  the  vacant 
spaces  in  this  thinly  inhabited  region  of  varied 
soil  and  abundant  resources.  It  will  appear  also 
from  some  tables  that  will  be  submitted  hereaf- 
ter that  the  emigration  to  this  State  from  other 
Southern  States  lying  to  the  eastward  has  been 
very  considerable  during  the  twenty  years  preced- 
ing 1880,  and  it  is  one  of  the  five  Southern  States 
having  already  the  greatest  Northern  population, 
while  the  percentage  of  those  of  Northern  birth 
within  its  limits  is  next  to  the  highest  of  the 
Southern  States. 

TABLE  C. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Each  Race  in  the  States  in  which  the 
Proportion  of  Colored  Inhabitants  exceeds  the  General  Average 
in  the  South. 


States. 


Whites. 


Virginia S80.858 

North  Carolina..    ..  .  867,242 

South  Carolina 391.105 

Georgia. . .    816,906 

Florida 142,605 

Alabama... 662. 1S5 

Mississippi 479,39s 

Louisiana 454,954 


Total 


i   4,695.253 


Per  cent. 

53.8 

61 

9 

39 

3 

52 

5 

52 

9 

S2 

3 

41 

4 

48 

4 

Av'ag-e  p.  c. 

50.9 

Colored. 


631,616 

531,277 
604,332 

725133 
126.690 
600,103 
650.291 

4S3.655 


Per  cent. 


41.7 

37-9 
60.6 
47-0 
47.I 

47-5 
57-5 
51.4 


Av'apre  p.  c. 
4,353.097   I      43.8 


The  other  class  includes  all  the  Southern  States 
not  embraced  in  the  above  table;  to  wit,  Virginia, 


1 1 4  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,,  and  Louisiana,  as  shown  in 

Table  C. 

From  an  inspection  of  these  two  tables  it  will 
be  seen  that  in  the  States  first  named  (Table  B) 
Si.S  per  cent  of  the  population  is  white  and  16.9 
per  cent  colored.  In  other  words,  there  is  one 
colored  man  to  every  Jive  white  men.  In  the  sec- 
ond class  (Table  C),  51.4  per  cent  of*  the  popula- 
tion is  white  and  47.6  per  cent  colored,  or  one 
hundred  colored  to  every  one  hundred  and  eight 
white  men:  showing  that  of  the  6,580,793  col- 
ored people  in  the  United  States,  4,353,097  are 
found  in  the  tief  of  States  lying  between  the 
Potomac  and  the  Mississippi,  and  have  with 
them  as  fellow-citizens  of  these  States  only 
4,745,964  whites.  This  shows  an  actual  excess 
in  1SS0  of  only  392,864  whites  in  this  black 
belt,  which  has  no  doubt  already  been  neutral- 
ized by  the  greater  reproductive  power  of  the 
colored  race. 

There  is  still  one  other  classification  necessary 
to  complete  the  view  which  the  intelligent  ob- 
server should  take  of  this  joint  occupancy  of  this 
region  by  the  two  contrasted  races;  to  wit,  those 
States  in  which   the   colored   population   already 


Too  True  an  Evil. 


ii5 


exceed  the  white  in  number,  as  appears  from  the 
following  exhibit  : 


TABLE  D. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Each  Race  in  those  States  hi  which  the 
Number  of  Colored  Inhabitants  exceeds  the  White  Population. 


States. 

Whites. 

Per  cent. 

Colored. 

Per  cent. 

South  Carolina 

Mississippi 

39LI05 

479-393 
464-954 

39.3 

41. 4 

4S.4 

604.332 
650,291 
483655 

60.6 

57-5 
51-4 

Total 

1,335-457 

Av'age  p.  c. 

43-3 

lAv'agre  p.  c. 
1,738,278         56.4 

From  all  these  data  it  appears  that,  in  our  en- 
tire population  (in  the  United  States)  there  are 
6A-  whites  to  each  colored  person ;  among  eighteen 
millions  of  our  population  (Border  and  Southern 
States),  one  out  of  every  three  is  of  the  African 
race,  is  twenty  years  removed  from  slavery,  and 
less  than  three  hundred  years  from  barbarism. 
Among  nine  millions  (Border  States),  one  in  every 
five  of  the  population  is  colored.  Among  eight 
millions  more  (Southern  States)  there  is  practi- 
cally one  colored  man  to  every  white  inhabitant. 

Seven  of  the  Southern  States  have  an  average 
of  16.9  per  cent  of  colored  inhabitants;  eight 
have  an  average  of  47.6  per  cent ;  and  three  an 
average  of  56.4  per  cent. 


1 1 6  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

In  order  to  complete  the  picture  we  should 
bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  these  races  are  more 
intimately  commingled  in  the  ordinary  duties  and 
relations  of  life,  and  more  widely  separated  in 
certain  other  relations,  than  any  two  distinct 
races  ever  were  before  in  the  world's  history. 
Leaving  out  of  consideration  the  population  of 
the  mountain  regions, — the  slopes  of  the  Appa- 
lachian range,  which  offered  little  inducement  to 
slavery,  but  along  which  the  white  race  has  shown 
greater  reproductive  power  than  in  any  other  por- 
tion of  the  continent, — we  may  safely  say  that  in 
every  house  (including,  of  course,  the  curtilage) 
and  on  every  plantation  in  eight  States  there  is 
one  colored  person  living  side  by  side  with  each 
white  person.  Master  and  servant,  mistress  and 
maid,  child  and  nurse,  employer  and  employee, 
in  the  shop,  on  the  farm — wherever  capital  and 
labor  or  oversight  and  service  meet.  From  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  the  white  life  and  the  black 
touch  each  other  every  hour.  Yet  an  infinite 
distance  separates  them  ever.  In  all  this  there 
is  no  equalization,  no  fraternity,  no  assimilation 
of  rights,  no  reciprocity  of  affection.  Children 
may  caress  each  other  because  they  are  children. 
Betwixt  adults  fewer  demonstrations  of  affection 


Too  True  an  Evil.  1 1 7 

are  allowed  than  the  master  bestows  upon  his 
dog.  Ordinary  politeness  becomes  a  mark  of 
shame.  A  caress  implies  degradation.  In  all 
that  region  no  mart  would  stand  in  a  lady's  pres- 
ence unless  uncovered.  Yet  not  a  white  man  in 
its  borders  dare  lift  his  hat  to  a  colored  woman 
in  the  street,  no  matter  how  pure  her  life,  how 
noble  her  attributes,  or  how  deep  his  obligations 
to  her  might  be. 

This  is  the  first  phase  of  the  great  problem 
which  is  before  us  for  solution.  How  shall  these 
two  races,  thus  closely  intermingled,  co-exist 
without  conflict  or  danger? 


To-Morrow  in  the  Light  of 
Yesterday. 

1  N  order  to  determine  still  more  clearly  the  true 
*-  relations  of  the  races  in  these  States,  our 
next  step  will  be  to  ascertain  the  ratio  of  increase 
of  each  race  within  the  territory  under  considera- 
tion, in  the  past,  and  compare  that  with  the  growth 
of  the  other.  We  must  then  ascertain,  if  we  can, 
whether  there  exist  any  influences  that  may 
affect  the  continuance  of  the  same  ratio  of  growth, 
or  are  likely  to  accelerate  or  retard  the  action  of 
existent  forces  tending  to  promote  the  numerical 
ascendency  of  either  race. 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.     1 19 

Comparing  the  aggregate  white  population  of 
the  United  States  in  1790  with  the  aggregate 
white  population  in  1 880,  we  find  a  gain  of  1299 
per  cent.  In  other  words,  the  white  population 
of  the  whole  country  increased,  during  the  ninety 
years  preceding  1880,  thirteen  times.  During  the 
same  period  the  colored  race  in  the  United  States 
increased  769  per  cent,  or  eight  and  seven-tenths 
times  the  original  stock. 

Compare  now  the  population  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  the  States  recognized  as  Slave  States 
in  i860,  at  their  first  enumeration  of  1790,  with 
the  population  of  the  same  area  according  to  the 
census  of  1880.  We  find  the  whites  within  said 
territory  in  1790  to  have  numbered  1,271,400,  and 
in  1880  amounted  to  12,460,248,  showing  a  gain 
of  880  per  cent;  or,  in  other  words,  that  the 
present  white  population  of  this  region  amounts 
to  nine  and  four-fifths  times  the  white  population 
which  it  had  ninety  years  before.  The  same  area 
contained  in  1790  a  colored  population  of  689,882, 
and  in  1880  of  6,039,657,  showing  a  gain  of  775 
percent,  or  eight  and  four-fifths  times  the  original 
number.  From  this  it  would  appear  that  while 
the  relative  increase  of  the  two  races  in  the  whole 
United  States  has  been  about  thirteen  to  7iinc~\n 


i2o  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  Southern  States  the  white  race  has  increased 
only  in  the  ratio  of  nine  to  eight  of  the  colored. 

This  method  of  regarding  the  relative  growth 
of  the  two  races,  however,  is  very  delusive. 
While  the  colored  population  of  these  States  re- 
ceived but  very  slight  accessions  from  without, 
after  the  period  of  the  first  enumeration,  some  of 
them,  especially  those  upon  the  northern  border 
and  the  newer  States  of  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and 
Texas,  received  very  considerable  accessions  to 
their  white  population  from  Northern  immigration. 
There  has  also  been  a  small  but  steady  increment 
of  foreign  emigration  coming  into  and  strengthen- 
ing the  white  population  of  the  South.  It  is  not 
probable  that  the  importation  of  slaves  into  this 
region  at  any  time  equaled  the  loss  of  colored 
population  by  the  escape  of  fugitives  during  the 
period  previous  to  i860  and  the  emigration  of 
colored  people  from  the  South  to  the  North  since 
that  date.  It  is  necessary,  therefore,  in  order  to 
obtain  a  correct  idea  of  the  reproductive  energy 
of  the  colored  and  white  races  under  the  condi- 
tions now  presented  in  the  different  States  of  the 
South,  to  separate  what  may  be  denominated  the 
"  Border  States"  from  the  older  "  Slave  States" 
constituting  the  belt  extending  from  the  Potomac 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday,     i  2  1 


to  the  Mississippi.  The  following  tables  show 
the  numerical  increase  and  the  per  cent  of  gain  of 
each  race  in  each  State  of  these  two  groups : 

TABLE   E. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Gain  of  the  White  Population  of  the 
Border  States  since  the  first  record  of  them  in  the  Census  down 
to  1S80. 


States. 

Date. 

White 

Pop'lation' 

at  date 

given. 

White 

Population. 

1880. 

Gain. 

Per  cent. 

Delaware  .... 

1790 

46,310 1 

120,100 

73.S50 

x59 

4 

Maryland   .  .  . 

1790 

208,649 

724,693 

516,044 

247 

0 

Kentucky.  .  .  . 

1790 

61,133  ' 

1,337-179 

I.276.046 

2087 

3 

Missouri 

l8lO 

17.227  | 

2,022,826 

2.005,599 

1 1 642 

1 

Arkansas  .... 

1820 

12.579 

59!.53i 

573,952 

4602 

5 

Tennessee  .  .  . 

1790 

3i,9i7 

1.138,831 

1.106,914 

3468 

6 

Texas 

1850 

154,034 

1. 197. 237 

1,043.203 

617 

2 

Total.    .. 

53i, S49 

7,132,457 

6,600,608 

1244 

3 

TABLE    F. 
Number  and  Percentage  of  Gain  of  Colored  Population  in  the 
Border  States  since  the  first  ?-ecord  of  them  in  the  Census  down 
to  1S80. 


States. 

Date. 

Colored 

Pop'lation 

at  date 

given. 

Colored 

Population, 

1880. 

Gain. 

Per  cent. 

Delaware  . . 
Maryland. . 
Kentucky. . 
Missouri . .  . 

1790 
1790 
1790 
1S10 
1S20 
1S50 
1790 

12.7S6 
111,079 

12.544 
3,6iS 
1,676 

5S,55S 
3.778 

26,442 
210.230 
271.451 

13.656 

99.151 

258,907 

IOO.  S 

S9.2 

206.4 

39J7.4 

12514-3 

Arkansas  .  . 
Texas 

210,666  j        20S.990 
iqi  ^Sj.         iij.  S°6 

Tennessee.  .  . 

403.151         399-373    10571-0 

Total 

204,039 

1,660.674 

122 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar, 


TABLE    G. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Increase  of  the  White  Population  of 
the  Old  Slave  States  from  the  first  Enumeration  until  1880. 


White  Popu- 

White 

States. 

Date. 

lation  at 

Population, 

Gain. 

Per 

date  given. 

1880. 

438,741 

Virginia.  . .  . 

1790 

442,117 

8S0.S5S 

99.2 

N.  Carolina.  . 

1790 

2SS.204 

867,242 

579.03S 

200.9 

S.  Carolina. . . 

1790 

I40,I7S 

391,105 

250,927 

179.O 

Georgia 

1790 

52,SS6 

Si  6, 906 

764,020 

1442.9 

Florida 

1S30 

18,385 

142,605 

124.220 

675.6 

Alabama 

1820 

85.451 

662,185 

576,734 

676.9 

Mississippi.. . 

1S00 

5,179 

479,398 

474.219 

9156.3 

Louisiana. . .  . 

1S10 

34,311 

454,954 

420,643 

1225.9 

Total 

1,066.711 

4,695.253 

3,628,5-42 

340.2 

TABLE    H. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Inaease  of  the  Colored  Population  of 
the  Old  Slave  States  from  the  first  Eiiumeration  until  1SS0. 


States. 

Date. 

1790 
1790 
1790 
1790 
1S30 
1S20 
1800 
1S10 

Colored 

Pop'lation 

at  date 

given. 

Colored 

Population, 

1880. 

Gain. 

Per  cent. 

Virginia 

N.  Carolina.  . 
S.  Carolina. . . 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama  .... 
Mississippi. .  . 
Louisiana. . .  . 

305,493 

105,547 

I0S,S95 

29,662 

16,345 

42,450 

3-67I 

42,245 

631.616 

53L277 
604.332 

725.133 
126,690 
600,103 
650.291 

483,655 

326,123 
425,730 
495.437 
695-47I 
110,245 

557.653 
646,620 
441,410 

106.7 
402.4 

454-9 
2344.6 

674.6 

I3I3-6 

I76I4-3 

1044.8 

Total.  . .  . 

654.308 

4,353,097 

3,698,789 

563-7 

From  these  it  will  be  seen  that  the  percentage 
of  increase  of  the  whites  in  each  of  the  States 


To-Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday. 


I  2 


embraced  in  Tables  E  and  F  ("  Border  States") 
during  the  periods  which  they  have  respectively- 
been  noted  as  separate  territories  in  the  census, 
has  been  greater  than  that  of  the  colored  race 
therein  during  the  same  period  ;  while  in  those 
States  embraced  in  Tables  G  and  H  ("  Old  Slave 
States")  the  increase  of  the  white  race  has  been, 
in  eveiy  case,  less  than  that  of  the  colored  race 
within  the  same  limits.  It  will  be  noted  that  this 
latter  class  embraces  all  those  States  in  which  the 
colored  population  in  1880  averaged  forty-seven 
and  six-tenths  per  cent  of  the  aggregate  population. 
Perhaps  the  most  striking  view  of  this  subject 
that  is  presented  by  these  tables  is  found  by  a 
comparison  of  Tables  G  and  H.  From  this  it 
will  be  seen  that  there  were  412,403  more  whites 
than  blacks  in  these  States  at  the  first  enumera- 
tion, yet  the  whites  have  only  increased  39,753 
more  than  the  blacks.  In  other  words,  1,066,308 
whites  show  a  net  gain  of  3,728,542,  while  654,308 
blacks  in  the  same  territory  show  a  net  gain  of 
3,698,789.  While,  therefore,  the  colored  race  has 
not  in  all  the  States  kept  pace  with  the  white 
during  the  whole  period  since  1790,  yet  in 
this  region,  which  may  be  termed  the  "  Black 
Belt,"  it   has   greatly  outstripped  the  dominant 


124  An  Appeal  to  Casar, 

race.  These  tables  include  the  whole  period  of 
slavery  and  liberty  during  which  we  have  any  re- 
cord of  our  population.  Tables  I  and  J,  which 
follow,  embrace  the  period  from  i860  to  1880, 
showing  the  numerical  gain  and  the  percentage 
of  gain  of  each  race  in  each  of  these  States  from 
i860  to  1880.  These  tabulations  will  well  repay 
careful  scrutiny,  showing  as  they  do  that  the  per- 
centage of  increase  of  the  white  race  in  the  Border 
States  was  seventy-two  and  three-tenths,  though  the 
percentage  of  gain  of  the  colored  race  was  only 
forty-seven  and  six-tenths  ;  while  in  the  Black  Belt 
the  whites  increased  only  thirty-three  per  cent,  and 
the  blacks  forty-three.  In  other  words,  while  the 
blacks  of  the  Border  States  increased  only  four 
per  cent  faster  than  those  of  the  Black  Belt,  the 
whites  of  the  Border  States  increased  thirty-nine 
per  cent  faster  than  those  of  the  Black  Belt.  This 
difference  is  due  not  to  any  inherent  distinction 
between  the  comparative  reproductive  power  of 
the  races  in  the  contrasted  States,  but  to  the  fact 
that  white  immigration  is  coming  into  the  newer 
Border  States  and  is  leaving  the  older  Slave 
States.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  both  these 
movements  of  population  are  notable  and  steady, 
and  would  seem  to  indicate  beyond  question  that 


To-Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday,     i 


TABLE    I. 

Percentage  of  Increase  of  White  and  Colored  Riiccs  in  the  Border 
States,  1S60  to  1SS0. 


White  Population. 

c 

V 

Col.  Population. 

0  c 

C  r 

i860, 

1880. 

i860. 

1SS0. 

Delaware 

Maryland 

Kentucky 

Missouri 

Arkansas 

Texas 

Tennessee 

90,589 

515,918 

919,484 

1,063,489 

324,143 
420,891 
826,722 

120,160 
724,693 

1,377,179 
2,022,826 

59*. 531 

1,197.237 
1,138,831 

32 

40 

49 
90 

32 
S2 

27 

6 
4 

7 
2 

4 
S 

7 

21,627     26,442 
171,131  210,230 
236,167271,451 
118,503  145,350 
111,259  210,666 
182,921393,384 
283,019  403.151 

22 
22 

14 
22 

ss 
115 

45 

8 

9 
4 
3 
0 
2 

TABLE  J. 

Percentage  of  Increase  of  White  and  Colored  Races  in  the  Old 
Slave  States  from  i860  to  1 8 So. 


White  Population. 


i860. 


1880. 


Virginia °9I>773 

N.  Carolina.  . .    629,942 
S.  Carolina....    291,300 

Georgia |  591,550 

Florida |     77.746 

Alabama j  526,271 

Mississippi....    353,899 
Louisiana....      357,456 


S30.85S 
867,242 
391- 105 


Colored  Population 


i860. 


14. 31  527.763 


37.8   361,522 
34.2  412.320 

816.906  55. 0!  465  698 

62,677 

437,770 

437-404 

350,373 


142,605  84.8 

662,185  !25.8 
479,398  32.6 
454,954  2S.6 


631,616 

531,277 
604.332 

725.133 
126,690 
600, 103 
650.291 
483,655 


19.6 
46.9 
46.5 

55-7 
102. 1 
34-3 
48.7 
35-1 


126  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

in  what  I  have  called  the  Black  Belt  the  colored 
race  is  bound  to  increase  and -the  white  race  to 
decrease  in  relative  numbers,  to  an  extent  that 
should  convince  any  careful  observer  that  the 
question  of  the  African  in  the  United  States,  as 
an  element  of  our  life  and  civilization,  is  just  be- 
ginning to  assume  a  national  importance,  and  to 
demand  instant  and  earnest  consideration. 

But  the  most  startling  comparison  yet  remains 
to  be  made.  The  statistics  heretofore  presented 
have  shown  the  comparative  numerical  increase 
of  the  two  races  in  the  relation  of  master  and 
slave.  The  last  two  tables,  it  is  true,  include 
the  period  of  freedom,  but  they  include  also  the 
period  of  war.  They  were  introduced  only  to 
show  that  neither  of  these  influences  impaired 
the  deduction  made  from  the  figures  presented 
by  the  whole  period  covered  by  the  various 
censuses.  It  was  confidently  predicted  by  all 
theorists  who  speculated  upon  the  subject  that 
the  negro  would  wither  away  under  the  influ- 
ences of  freedom  and  civilization.  It  was  un- 
hesitatingly asserted,  and  almost  universally  be- 
lieved, that  the  first  decade  of  liberty  would  show 
the  race  to  have  been  decimated  by  disease,  de- 
bauchery, and  the  lack   of  the  master's  paternal 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.     127 

care.  It  was  not  an  unnatural  conclusion  for 
men  to  arrive  at  who  devoutly  believed  in  the 
negro's  incapacity  for  self-support.  That  the 
people  of  the  North  should  believe  it  also  is 
hardly  to  be  wondered  at.  They  have  always 
reflected  the  Southern  idea  of  the  negro  in  every- 
thing except  as  to  his  natural  right  to  be  free 
and  to  exercise  the  rights  of  the  freeman.  The 
North,  however,  has  never  desired  the  numerical 
preponderance  of  the  colored  man,  and  has  espe- 
cially desired  to  avoid  responsibility  in  regard 
thereto.  From  the  first  it  seems  to  have  been 
animated  by  a  sneaking  notion  that  after  having 
used  the  negro  to  fight  its  battles,  freed  him 
as  a  natural  result  of  the  overthrow  of  a  rebel- 
lion based  on  slavery,  and  enfranchised  him  to 
constitute  a  political  foil  to  the  ambition  and 
disloyalty  of  his  former  master,  it  could  at  any 
time  unload  him  upon  the  States  where  he 
chanced  to  dwell,  wash  its  hands  of  all  further 
responsibility  in  the  matter,  and  leave  him  to 
live  or  die  as  chance  might  determine.  It  seems 
a  hard  saying,  but  there  is  very  little  doubt  that 
side  by  side  with  the  belief  in  the  Northern 
mind  that  the  negro  would  disappear  beneath  the 
glare  of  civilization  was  a  half-unconscious  feeling 


128  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

that  such  disappearance  would  be  a  very  simple 
and  easy  solution  of  a  troublesome  question. 
Probably  there  are  hardly  ten  men  in  the  coun- 
try— if  indeed  there  be  one — who  did  not  believe 
at  the  close  of  the  war  that  in  fifteen  years  there- 
after the  white  population  of  every  Southern 
State  would  have  increased  at  least  fifty  per  cent 
faster  than  its  colored  element.  The  census  of 
1870  seemed  to  leave  the  matter  in  doubt.  We 
waited  anxiously  for  that  of  1880.  It  came. 
The  story  it  told  was  so  astounding  that  it  could 
not  be  believed.  It  was  carefully  tested.  There 
was  no  chance  to  question  its  correctness.  All 
that  could  be  granted  was  that  the  preceding  one 
may  have  been  inaccurate.  This  inaccuracy  of 
the  census  of  1870,  however,  applied  alike  to 
both  races,  and  so  cannot  be  regarded  as  affecting 
their  relative  positions.  It  seems  to  be  conceded 
that  the  census  of  1870  was  not  correctly  taken  at 
the  South — the  defect  consisting  in  the  failure  to 
enumerate  all  the  population.  The  gain  of  both 
races  for  the  decade  as  shown  by  the  census  of 
1880  was  undoubtedly  too  great,  but  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  the  error  affected  one 
more  than  the  other ;  so  that  the  relative  gain 
would  remain  as  indicated. 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.     1 29 

The  census  of  1880  revealed  the  unexpected 
and  amazing  fact  that  in  a  state  of  freedom  the 
reproductive  energy  of  the  American  negro  not 
only  exceeds  that  of  the  white  race  dwelling  in 
the  same  locality,  but  exceeds  his  own  ratio  of 
numerical  gain  in  a  state  of  slavery.  If  the  mat- 
ter had  a  serious  aspect  seen  in  the  light  of  pre- 
vious statistics,  it  presents  a  problem  of  unex- 
pected difficulty  when  considered  in  the  light  of 
the  figures  of  the  Tenth  Census.  The  following 
table  shows  the  numerical  increase  and  the  per- 
centage of  gain  of  each  race  in  the  States  in- 
cluded in  the  Black  Belt  from  1870  to  1880: 

TABLE   K. 

Numerical  Gain  and  the   Gain  per  cent    of  Each  Race  in  the 
Old  Slave  States  from   1 870  to  1880. 


1870. 

18S0. 

Numerical 
Gain. 

Gain 
per  cent. 

712, 0S9 
678,470 
289,667 
638,926 
9M57 
521, 3S4 
382,896 
362,065 

8So,S58 
867,242 
391,105 
Si  6, 906 
142.605 
662,185 
479.393 
454,954 

168,769 

188,772 

101,438 

177, 9S0 

46,54s 

140.801 

96,502 

92,889 

23.7 
27.8 

35-0 

27.8 

48.3 
27.0 
25.2 
25.6 

North  Carolina.. . . 
South  Carolina.. .  . 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

Total 

B,68i,s54 

4,095,253 

1,013,699 

27.5 

13° 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


COLORED. 


1870. 

1880. 

Numerical 
Gain. 

Gain 
per  cent. 

Virginia 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina. . . . 

512. S41 
391,650 
415,814 
545,142 
91,689 
475,5io 
444,201 
364,210 

631,616 

531,277 
604,332 

725,133 
126,690 
600,103 
650,291 

483,655 

H8,775 
139,627 
188.518 
179,991 
35,OOI 

124.593 
206,090 

119,445 

23.I 
35-6 
45-1 
32.8 

38.0 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

26.2 

46.3 
32.8 

Total 

3.241,057 

4-353,  °97      1,112,040 

34-3 

It  will  be  observed  that  this  table  shows  not 
merely  a  greater  percentage  of  gain  on  the  part  of 
the  blacks,  but  a  greater  numerical  increase.  The 
3,241,057  colored  inhabitants  of  these  States  in 
1870  show  an  actual  gain  of  98,341  more  than  the 
whites,  although  the  latter  race  outnumbered  the 
former  in  1870  by  440,497.  In  other  words,  three 
and  a  quarter  millions  of  the  colored  race  are  able 
to  give  the  whites  among  whom  they  dwell  the 
odds  of  a  half-million  in  numbers,  and  yet  in  a 
decade  outstrip  them  a  hundred  thousand  in  nu- 
merical strength. 

Upon  this  we  present  some  tables  and  extracts 
from  the  article  by  Prof.  E.  W.  Gilliam  in  the 
Popidar  Science  Monthly,  heretofore  referred  to. 
He   makes    certain    tables, — compiled    from    the 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.    131 


census  of  1880,  and  "showing  the  rate  percent 
of  the  increase  or  decrease  of  the  white  and  black 
population  in  several  of  the  Southern  States, 
during  each  decade  from  1790  to  1880, — the  basis 
of  a  discussion  of  the  probable  numerical  strength 
of  the  races  in  the  future." 

The  following  are  the  tables  which  he  gives : 

UNITED    STATE'S. 

White.  Black. 

1830  to  1840 34  per  cent.  23  per  cent. 

1840101850 38    "  23 

1850  to  i860 38    "  22 

1S60  to  1870 24    "  9    " 

1870  to  18S0 29    "  34    " 

ALABAMA. 

1830  to  1840 76  per  cent.     114  per  cent. 

1840  to  1850 21    "        35    " 

185O  to  i860  21     "  27     " 

1S60  to  1870 i    "  loss.    8    " 

1S70  to  1880 27    "        26   " 

ARKANSAS. 

1830  to  1840. . .  , 206  per  cent.  332  per  cent. 

1S40  to  1850 nr    "  133 

1850  to  i860 98    "  133    " 

i860  to  1870 11    "         9    " 

1870  to  1S80 63    "  72    " 

NORTH    CAROLINA. 

1830  to  1840 2  per  cent.      1  per  cent. 

1840  to  1850 14    "  17    " 

1S50  to  i860 14    "  14 

i860  to  1870 7    "  8 

1870  to  1880 2S    "  36 


13: 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


SOUTH    CAROLINA. 
White. 

1830  to  1840 \  per  cent. 

1840  to  1850 6    " 

1850  to  i860 6    " 

i860  to  1870 \      "  loss. 

1870  to  1880 35 

MISSISSIPPI. 

1830  to  1840 155  per  cent. 

1S40  to  1850 64 

1850  to  i860 19    " 

i860  to  1870 8    " 

1870  to  1880 25 

LOUISIANA. 

1S30  to  1840 77  per  cent. 

1840  to  1850 61 

1850  to  1S60 39    " 

i860  to  1S70 1    " 

1870  to  1880 25 

GEORGIA. 

1830  to  1840 37  per  cent. 

1S40  to  1850 27    " 

1850  to  i860 13    " 

i860  to  1870 8    " 

1870  to  1880 27 


Black. 

3  per  cent. 

17 

5 

1    "  loss, 

45 

197  per  cent. 

57 

40   " 

ii   " 

47 

53  per  cent. 

35 

33 

4 

33 

28  per  cent. 

35 

20    " 

17    " 

32    " 

Of  the  decade  1 870-1 880,  Prof.  Gilliam  remarks 


"  It  will  be  seen  that  throughout  the  United  States  the 
gain  for  the  whites  has  been  twenty-nine  percent,  and  for 
the  blacks  thirty-four  per  cent,  and  that  the  latter  is  much 
the  highest  figure  reached  by  the  blacks  in  the  several 
decades." 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.    133 

Referring  to  the  error  in  the  census  of  1870,  he 
says  : 

"  As  the  error  bears  practically  against  both  races 
equally,  however  the  figures,  taken  absolutely,  may  vary 
from  the  truth,  yet  they  are  still  a  guide  to  the  compara- 
tive rate  of  increase  of  the  races.  It  is  estimated  that  five 
per  cent  from  the  rate  of  gain  for  the  Southern  blacks  is  a 
fair  allowance  for  this  error.  Obvious  considerations 
point  to  the  conclusion  that  for  the  future  the  blacks  will 
develop  at  the  South  under  conditions  more  and  more 
favorable,  and  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  in 
subsequent  decades  this  five  per  cent  will  be  regained. 

"  The  gain  for  the  whites  in  the  last  decade  is  very  nearly 
thirty  per  cent.  This  is  to  be  docked  in  the  Southern 
States  to  the  extent  of  five  per  cent  for  the  error  in  the 
census  of  1870.  Since,  however,  this  error  appertains 
only  to  the  twelve  million  Southern  whites,  and  the  cen- 
sus in  regard  to  the  thirty  million  Northern  whites  is 
accepted  as  correct,  the  rate  of  increase  for  the  total  white 
population  is  a  fraction  under  twenty-nine  per  cent.  Of 
this  at  least  nine  per  cent  should  be  attributed  to  immigra- 
tion. Immigration  is  now,  and  for  a  year  or  two  past  has 
been,  largely  in  excess  of  this  figure,  but  probably  not  for 
the  past  decade  ;  and  the  resultant  is  a  gain  of  twenty  per 
cent  for  the  entire  native  white  population. 

"There  is  a  wide  and,  at  first  view,  startling  difference 
between  the  twenty  per  cent  for  the  whites  and  the  thirty- 
five  per  cent  for  the  blacks.  The  solution  is  found  in  the 
superior  fecundity  of  the  latter." 


134  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

From  these  figures  Prof.  Gilliam  draws  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions : 

"  The  white  population,  increasing  at  the  rate  of  twenty 
per  cent  in  ten  years,  or  two  per  cent  per  annum,  doubles 
itself  every  thirty-five  years.  The  black,  increasing  at  the 
rate  of  thirty-five  per  cent  in  ten  years,  or  three  and  a  half 
per  cent  per  annum,  doubles  itself  in  twenty  years. 
Hence  we  find  : 

Whites  in  United  States  in  1880  (in  round  numbers)  42,000,000 
"  "  1915  "  "  84,000,000 

"  "  1950  "  "         168,000,000 

"  "  1985  "  "         336,000,000 

Northern  Whites  in  1S80 30,000.000 

"  "  1Q15 60,000,000 

"  "  1950 120,000,000 

"  "  19S5 240,000,000 

Southern  Whites  in  1SS0 12,000,000 

"  "  1915 24,000,000 

"  "  1950 48,000,000 

"  "  1985 96,000,000 

Blacks  in  Southern  States  in   1880 6,000,000 

"'  "  "  1900 12,000,000 

"  "  "  1920 24,000,000 

"  "  •'  1940 48,000,000 

"  "  "  1960 96,000,000 

«'  "  "  1980 192,000,000 

It  is  not  necessary  that  the  conclusions  of  Prof. 
Gilliam  in  regard  to  the  future  of  the  African  race 
should.be  accepted  as  specifically  true.  These 
prognostications  do  not  need  to  be  expressly  ful- 
filled in  order  to  convince  any  thoughtful  mind 


To- Morrow  in  the  Light  of  Yesterday.    135 

that  the  problem  of  the  African  in  the  United 
States,  instead  of  being  a  question  that  concerns 
the  past  alone,  is  really  the  most  vital  and  impor- 
tant of  all  the  questions  that  can  possibly  occupy 
the  national  attention  for  the  present  and  the  fu- 
ture. The  tables  on  which  he  based  his  esti- 
mates, embracing  as  they  do  the  whole  population 
of  the  United  States,  indicate  a  numerical  pre- 
dominance of  the  colored  race  in  all  the  Southern 
States  a  hundred  years  hence. 

The  tables  which  we  have  given  showing  the 
operation  of  the  rate  of  increase  in  the  colored 
race  upon  separate  groups  of  Southern  States  in- 
dicates a  still  more  startling  fact ;  to  wit,  that  in 
the  year  1900,  or  sixteen  years  he7ice,  each  of  the 
States  lying  between  Maryla?zd  and  Texas  will  have 
a  colored  majority  within  its  borders  ;  and  we  shall 
have  eight  minor  republics  of  the  Union  in  which 
either  the  colored  race  will  rule  or  a  majority  will 
be  disfrancJiised! 


Let  those  who  think  the  Nation  has  no  interest 
in  the  matter  ponder  this  fact  very  seriously. 


A  Macedonian  Cry, 


THE  next  step  in  our  investigation  of  this 
question  must  be  to  ascertain  whether 
there  are  any  causes  which  are  likely  to  affect  the 
continuance  of  this  disproportionate  rate  of  in- 
crease of  the  races,  so  as  to  sensibly  modify  its 
normal  results.  Such  influences  may  be  of  three 
classes  : 

I. — Natural  or  social  forces,  tending  to  enhance 
or  diminish  the  repro'ductive  energy  of 
either  race  so  as  to  affect  their  present  rela- 
tive growth. 


A  Macedonian  Cry.  137 

II. — Any  movement  of  population  from  without 
that  shall  tend  sensibly  to  increase  the  nu- 
merical strength  of  either  race  without  af- 
fecting in  like  manner  the  other. 
HI. — Any   migratory  movement    appreciably  af- 
fecting either  race  within  the  States  under 
consideration,  and  not  sensibly  affecting  the 
other. 
The  first  of  these  classes  has  already  been  in- 
directly considered.     With  regard  to  it  the  follow- 
ing propositions  may  be  safely  formulated  : 
I. — There  is  no  reasonable  prospect  of  any  known 
or  probably  conceivable  significant    change 
in  the  manner  of  life,  occupation,  external 
surroundings,  or  position  in  the  social  scale, 
as  compared  with    the   colored    race,  at  all 
likely  to  enhance  the    reproductive    energy 
of  the   white    race    in     those     States,    and 
thereby  diminish  the  present  disproportion- 
ate rate  of  growth. 
2. — On  the  other   hand,  all    the  natural  and  so- 
ciological influences  that  now  exist   or  are 
likely   to    occur    favor   very    distinctly   and 
potently  the  enhancement  of  the  rate  of  in- 
crease of  the  colored  race.     The  most  note- 
worthy of  these  influences  are  the  following  : 


138  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

(a) — The  fact  that  the  colored  population  must 
ever  remain  a  distinct  and  alien  body,  so  far 
as  the  whites  of  the  South  are  concerned,  con- 
demns them  to  remain,  certainly  for  many 
generations,  the  laboring  class.  They  can- 
not rise  above  this  rank  at  least  during  the 
next  hundred  years.  They  are  safe,  therefore, 
from  the  enervating  influences  of  luxury  and 
fashion.  Labor,  chiefly  agricultural,  the  open 
air,  plain  but  nutritious  food,  confortable 
clothing,  sufficient  shelter,  and  a  climate 
exactly  suited  to  their  wants,  constitute  con- 
ditions which  cannot  fail  to  act  favorably  on 
the  natural  reproductive  energy  of  the  race. 

(b) — Freedom  of  life  and  a  slow  but  constant  im- 
provement in  their  surroundings,  greater  ease 
and  comfort,  and  the  inspiration  of  opportu- 
nity, will  more  and  more  tend  to  lessen  the 
death-rate,  prolong  life,  and  increase  the 
numerical  disproportion  in  favor  of  the  col- 
ored race. 

(c)—  Increasing  intelligence,  the  power  of  self-sup- 
port, and  the  knowledge  and  capacity  to  ex- 
ercise thrift  and  care  in  the  support  of  fami- 
lies will  continue  to  improve  the  advantages 
which  already  predominate  in  favor  of  the 
blacks. 

The  second  of  the  above-named  classes  of  modi- 
fying surroundings  (II)   demands  a  more  careful 


A  Macedonian  Cry.  139 

and  extended  consideration.  It  is  influences  of 
this  character — immigration — on  which  so  many 
of  those  writers  who  for  almost  a  score  of  years 
have  been  foretelling  the  swift  regeneration  of 
Southern  life,  society,  and  sentiment  rely,  not 
only  for  numbers  to  overcome  the  existing 
disproportion  between  the  races,  but  also  for 
promoting  the  improvement  and  continued  domi- 
nation of  the  whites  in  those  States.  It  is  to 
immigration  that  the  people  of  the  North  have 
looked  also,  year  by  year,  for  mollifying  and  im- 
proving influences  upon  Southern  prejudice  and 
sentiment  gradually  to  become  apparent.  It  is 
the  general  belief,  both  at  the  North  and  at  the 
South,  that  immigration  to  the  South  both  from 
abroad  and  from  the  Northern  States  has  very 
greatly  increased  since  the  close  of  the  war.  There 
are  no  doubt  very  many  wise  and  self-assured  men 
of  both  sections  who  would  not  hesitate  to  aver 
that  such  was  an  unquestionable  fact. 

It  is  a  favorite  notion  of  the  American  people 
that  everything  which  promises  evil  to  the  nation 
will  cure  itself  if  only  it  be  let  alone.  In  a  sense 
we  are,  perhaps,  the  most  unreasonable  optimists 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  facts  of  our  history 
have  been  so  startling,  our  population  has  grown 


140  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

with  such  marvelous  rapidity,  and  the  constant 
opening  of  new  territory  has  made  such  a  won- 
derful and  constant  demand  for  new  life  and 
energy,  that  we  are  inclined  to  forget  that  the  laws 
which  govern  humanity  apply  in  any  degree  to 
us  or  to  our  future.  As  a  people  we  believe  most 
devoutly  in  our  luck.  Because  we  are  Americans 
we  think  that  we  are  exempt  from  the  perils  and 
dangers  which  beset  other  nations.  We  regard  it 
as  something  abnormal  if  the  laws  which  control 
other  associated  communities  become  factors  in 
our  own  development.  For  a  hundred  years  all 
the  world  except  ourselves  knew  that  sooner  or 
later  the  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery 
must  come.  But  when  Seward  proclaimed  the 
"  irrepressible  conflict,"  it  brought  a  thrill  of  fear 
to  every  heart.  Nearly  all  of  our  people  repro- 
bated any  such  utterances.  War  !  War  in  Amer- 
ica! War  between  Americans !  It  could  not  be. 
The  gulf  between  the  North  and  the  South  might 
be  an  impassable  one.  Slavery  might  rule  upon 
one  side,  and  Liberty  flourish  upon  the  other,  yet 
it  could  not  be  that  ever  the  sword  would  bridge 
the  chasm  or  that  blood  would  flow  in  defense  of 
slavery  or  in  resistance  to  its  aggressions.  Even 
so   late   as   December,    i860,   a    Senator   of   the 


A  Macedonian  Cry  141 

United  States  lectured  throughout  all  the  chief 
cities  of  the  North,  demonstrating  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  immense  audiences  the  impossibility  of 
civil  war  in  America.  At  that  very  moment  the 
Confederacy  was  an  organic  form ;  men  were 
mustering  for  the  conflict  ;  the  air  was  full  of 
threats  ;  war  was  at  our  thresholds. 

This  same  spirit  prevails  with  regard  to  any 
evil  that  is  said  to  threaten  our  land.  We  are 
disinclined  to  believe  any  unpleasant  fact  of  our- 
selves. We  refuse  until  the  fifty-ninth  minute  of 
the  eleventh  hour  to  recognize  the  presence  of 
danger.  We  have  a  sort  of  blind,  fortuitous  trust 
in  ourselves  and  in  our  luck  that,  whatever  may 
happen,  the  American  people  will  be  able  to  take 
care  of  themselves.  That  this  has  hitherto  proved 
to  be  true  hardly  justifies  the  conclusion  that  it 
always  will  do  so.  Besides  the  price  which  we  are 
called  upon  to  pay  for  exemption  from  the  ordi- 
nary evils  of  humanity,  the  penalty  which  is  de- 
manded for  the  disregard  of  the  laws  of  God  is 
always  a  very  heavy  one.  It  cost  a  million  lives 
and  untold  millions  of  treasure  to  repress  the 
rebellion  which  was  founded  upon  slavery.  If 
the  words  of  warning  which  for  fifty  years  had 
been  uttered  with  passionate  importunity  to  the 


14-  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


people  of  the  whole  country  by  the  few  who  saw 
and  felt  and  knew — if  these  words  had  been 
heeded — either  the  struggle  would  have  been 
short  and  sharp  or  never  have  occurred  at  all. 
The  nation  suffered  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion 
because  it  would  not  listen  to  the  words  of  warn- 
ing and  would  not  obey  the  laws  which  must 
govern  every  associated  community.  Peoples 
have  been  swept  off  the  face  of  the  earth  for  a 
disregard  of  natural  laws  of  far  less  importance 
than  those  with  which  we  trifled.  Year  after  year 
the  danger  grew ;  year  after  year  we  slept  with 
folded  arms ;  year  after  year  our  trade  and  com- 
merce clamored  angrily  against  those  who  told 
the  truth  which  we  were  forced  to  learn  when  it 
was  written  in  blood.  It  was  only  procrastina- 
tion, indecision,  that  made  the  problem  of  African 
slavery  in  the  United  States  one  of  overwhelming 
danger.  It  is  the  same  inclination  to  trifle  with 
the  danger  which  lies  before  us  that  makes  the 
problem  of  the  African  in  the  United  States  a 
terrible  one  to-day. 

There  are  a  few  vague  ideas  which  almost  every 
one,  North  and  South  alike,  entertains  with  re- 
gard to  this  question  which  demand  consideration 
at  our  hands. 


A  Macedonian  Cry,  143 

First,  it  is  a  very  general  belief  that  trade  and 
commerce  between  the  North  and  the  South  will 
in  some  mysterious  manner  change  the  nature  of 
the  people  and  obviate  all  danger  that  may  seem 
likely  to  arise  from  the  co-occupancy  of  the  two 
races.  Throughout  the  North  we  very  frequently 
hear  the  opinion  expressed,  and  meet  it  not  in- 
frequently in  print,  that  the  dissemination  of 
Northern  ideas  and  Northern  intelligence  and 
Northern  enterprise  throughout  the  South  will 
in  time  remove  the  differences  now  existing  be- 
tween the  people  of  the  two  sections,  and  har- 
monize the  discordant  races.  Two-thirds  of  the 
average  life  of  a  generation  has  passed  away 
since  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  the  cessation  of 
warfare.  Northern  ideas  and  Northern  influences 
have  had  scope  and  opportunity  in  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  South.  Not  only  its  commercial  and 
manufacturing  skill  have  been  at  work,  but  its 
abounding  charity  has  extended  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land  with  its  hands  full 
of  golden  treasure,  scattering  wisdom  and  kind- 
ness and  aid.  Nearly  twenty  millions  of  dollars 
have  been  given  by  the  kindly  Great-Hearts  of  the 
North  to  help  in  lifting  up  the  degraded  and 
oppressed  of  the  South.     Much  has  been  done; 


144  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

and  yet  if  we  but  glance  at  the  results  achieved,  we 
shall  laugh  at  the  faith  which  expects  the  world 
to  wait  while  Northern  influence,  Northern 
thought  and  enterprise  revolutionize  the  life  of 
the  South.  One  might  as  well  expect  a  drop  of 
oil  to  change  the  nature  of  a  bucket  of  water. 

Second.  Another  favorite  idea  with  those  who 
have  written  upon  this  subject  for  twenty  years 
has  been  the  notion  that  immigration  from  Eu- 
rope would  come  in  and  fill  the  vacant  spaces, 
make  the  waste  places  of  the  South  to  blossom  like 
the  rose,  and  constitute  a  new  growth  and  a  new 
life  before  which  the  African  would  gradually 
wither  away  and  become  an  unimportant  factor 
in  its  future  progress.  For  a  time  this  was  the 
favorite  fallacy  of  Southern  writers  and  thinkers. 
They  insisted  upon  having  a  laboring  class.  They 
were  dissatisfied  with  the  negro  in  a  state  of  free- 
dom ;  they  thought  him  not  sufficiently  subservi- 
ent ;  not  easily  enough  bound  to  serve  and  obey. 
He  would,  despite  all  laws  and  in  the  face  of  all 
possible  threats,  sometimes  abandon  his  contract, 
either  through  lack  of  payment  or  from  other  less 
reasonable  motive.  So  the  South  proposed  to 
substitute  other  laborers.  The  white  peasantry 
of  Europe  was  looked  to  as  a  source  of  supply. 


A  Macedonian  Cry.  145 

Our  own  Northern  philanthropists  and  economists 
regarded  this  as  a  most  reasonable  and  desirable 
movement.  How  far  they  have  succeeded,  let 
the  tables  which  follow  show.  For  twenty  years 
the  attempt  has  been  made  ;  the  invitations  have 
been  out ;  the  feast  has  been  waiting.  These 
tables  show  the  results.  It  may  be  well  to  ob- 
serve, too,  that  very  few  of  those  of  foreign  birth 
at  the  South  are  simple  laborers.  The  average 
illiteracy  of  the  people  of  foreign  birth  throughout 
the  country  is  something  more  than  twelve  per 
cent.  The  average  illiteracy  of  those  of  foreign 
birth  at  the  South  is  less  than  four  per  cent. 
What  does  this  prove  ?  Simply  that  the  foreigner 
who  goes  to  the  South  does  not  go  as  a  laborer. 
The  high  average  of  intelligence  found  among 
them  shows  that  these  foreigners  are,  in  the  main, 
traders  scattered  up  and  down  throughout  the 
country,  or  perhaps  engaged  in  the  finer  mechan- 
ical avocations  in  the  cities. 

Another  favorite  fancy,  especially  with  North- 
ern theorists  and  Southern  speculators,  is  that,  in 
some  golden  day  of  the  future,  immigration  from 
the  North  will  set  in  overwhelmingly  and  form 
anew  all  the  life  of  the  South.  Ah,  the  eloquence 
that  has  been  wasted  upon   this  subject !     How 


146  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

great -souled  Northern  philosophers  have  sped 
through  the  South,  gazing  with  disgust  at  its 
peculiar  agriculture  ;  ruminating  beside  its  wasted 
water-power;  dreaming  of  the  day  when  its  mines 
should  give  forth  their  treasures ;  when  new 
Birminghams  and  Manchesters  and  Lowells  should 
rise  beside  the  streams  of  the  South ;  when  the 
African  should  be  pushed  back  to  insignificance, 
and  industry  and  enterprise,  Northern  thrift  and 
Northern  vigor  and  Northern  labor  should  pre- 
vail !  From  the  South,  too,  forever  comes  the 
same  glowing  story  of  hopes  waiting  to  be  real- 
ized. Every  year  new  Edens  are  discovered. 
Almost  every  day  new  wonders  are  evolved  ;  and 
the  world,  and  especially  the  greedy  and  credulous 
Yankee,  is  asked  to  come,  to  come  at  once,  buy 
quickly  and  share  the  golden  shower  that  is  just 
beginning  to  fall.  Coal  and  iron  and  gold,  a 
thousand  quaintly  named  and  wondrously  rare 
metals,  invite  the  best,  the  strongest,  and  the 
bravest  of  the  Northern  people  to  come  and  help 
to  solve  the  problem  of  Southern  destiny.  Al- 
most every  man  who  owns  so  much  as  an  acre  of 
sedge-grown  field  dreams  of  the  time  when  the 
Yankees  shall  come  down  and  offer  fabulous  sums 
therefor.     Let  us  look  at  the  results  as  shown  in 


A  Macedonian  Cry. 


H7 


the  following  tables.  They  will  prove  interesting 
if  not  startling  to  the  intelligent  reader.  The 
first  shows  the  proportions  of  white,  colored,  and 
foreign-born  population  in  the  several  States  of 
the  South,  and  the  aggregate  of  each  of  these 
classes  at  the  North. 


TABLE  L. 

Number  of  White,  Colored,  and  Foreign-born  in  each  Southern 
State,  and  the  Aggregate  of  each  class  in  the  Northern  States,  in 
1S80. 


States. 

Foreign-born. 

Whites. 

Colored. 

Alabama 

9.734 

10,350 

9.46S 

9.909 
10,564 

59,517 

54.146 

82,So6 

9,209 

211,578 

3-742 

7.6S6 

16,702 

114,616 

1  j.  606 

662, 1S5 

591,531 
120,160 
142,605 
816,906 
1,377,179 
454.954 
724,693 

479,39S 

2,022, S26 

867,242 

39M05 

1,138,831 

1,197,237 

600,103 
210,666 
26,442 
126,690 
725,133 
271,451 
483,655 
210,230 
650,291 
145,350 
531,277 
604,332 

403,151 

393,384 

Delaware 

Florida 

Kentucky 

Mississippi 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

West  Virginia 

18,265   j          592,537 

25,SS6 

In  the  South. 

642,98s 

12,460,247 

6,039,657 

In  the  North 

6,037,155 

30,942,733 

540,736 

It  will  be  seen  that  hardly  one-tenth  of  the  for- 
eign-born population  of  the  country  is  to  be  found 


148 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


at  the  South,  which  has  more  than  one-third  of 
the  white  population  and  something  more  than 
nine-tenths  of  the  colored  population.  These  fig- 
ures will  no  doubt  satisfy  every  one  that  foreign 
immigration  is  not  likely  to  constitute  any  very 
important  element  of  Southern  life  for  a  con- 
siderable time  at  least.  But  the  following  table, 
showing  the  number  and  per  cent  of  the  aggregate 
and  foreign-born  populations  of  the  States  we  are 
especially  considering,  will  tend  to  establish  this 
conviction  in  the  minds  of  the  most  skeptical. 


TABLE  M. 

Number   and   Percentage  of  Foreign-born    Population  in    eight 
Southern  States  in  18S0. 


States. 


Virginia 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama  

Mississippi.  .  .  . 
Louisiana 


Total. 


Aggregate. 


1,512,565 
1,399.750 

995,577 
1,542,180 

269,493 
1,262,505 
1,131,597 

939.946 


9,053,613 


Foreign-born. 


14,696 
3.742 
7,686 

10,564 
9,909 
9,734 
9,209 

54,140 


119,686 


Per  cent. 


1-3 


An  average  rate   of  one  and  one-third  per  cent 
can  hardly  be  considered  a  very  potent  influence. 
It  requires  only   a  moment's  glance  at  the  fol- 


A  Macedonian  Cry. 


149 


lowing  table,  however,  to  afford  the  most  convinc- 
ing and  astounding  proof  that  this  hope  of 
affecting  Southern  life  in  even  the  remotest 
degree  by  the  influence  of  foreign  immigration  is 
utterly  and  absurdly  visionary.  This  table 
shows  the  loss  and  gain  of  foreign-born  popula- 
tion in  each  of  the  States  we  are  considering  from 
i860  to  1870,  and  from  1870  to  1880.  It  demon- 
strates the  astounding  fact  that  emancipation  has 
reduced  even  the  ante-bellum  ratio  of  the  foreign- 
born  population  in  these  States  in  a  surprising  degree, 
and  that  all  the  efforts  that  have  been  made  to 
attract  foreign  immigrants  to  this  region  have  7iot 
sufficed  to  prevent  a  LOSS  of  almost  one  fourth  the 
member  of  foreigners  in  these  States  in  1 860  ! 

TABLE  N. 
Gain  and  Loss  of  Foreign-bom   in  each  of  these  States,  1S60  to 
1880,  with  aggregate  Loss  during  that  time. 


FOREIGN-BOKN. 

States. 

i860. 

1870. 

Gain. 

Loss, 

1SS0. 

Gain. 

Loss. 

I8.5I3 
3,298 

9,086 
",671 

3,309 
12,352 

8.558 
80.975 

13-754 
3,029 
8.074 

11,127 
4,967 
9,962 

11,191 

61,827 

1,658 
2,633 

4,759 
269 

i,912 
544 

2,390 

19,148 

;  14,696 
3,742 
7,686 

;    10.564 

i  9-9°9 
9-734 

1      9.209 

;  54,146 

942 

713 

4,942 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

"388 

563 

Florida  

Alabama 

223 
1,982 

7  681 

Total 

148,662 

i23,93i 

119,686 

Total  loss  from  i860  to  1880  of  foreign-born  population 28,976. 


15° 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


Instead  of  having  gained  anything  by  immigra- 
tion from  abroad  during  the  last  two  decades, 
therefore,  we  see  that  these  States  have  lost  the 
amazing  number  of  twenty-nine  thousand  foreign- 
born  inhabitants. 

This  loss,  however,  and  much  more,  it  will 
generally  be  supposed,  has  been  made  up  by 
immigration  from  the  Northern  States.  The  fol- 
lowing tables  will  show  the  futility  of  any  such 
belief. 

TABLE  O. 

Natives  of  the   United  States  resident  in  each  Southern  State  in 
1870,  with  section  of  Birth. 


Residing  in- 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi.  .  .  . 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

West  Virginia 

Total 


Born  in  the 
United  States. 


937, 
479. 
115, 
182, 

172, 

257, 
665, 

697. 
816, 

499. 
06S. 
697 

.239 
756 
,211 
424 


030 
445 
879 
781 
982 
613 
08S 
4S2 

731 
028 
332 
532 
204 
168 
409 
923 


13,271,627 


Born  at 
the  North. 


4,829 
16,746 
13,272 

2,257 

6,613 

59.901 

14,228 

36.8S2 

7,503 

340,  T42 

3,014 

2,564 

19,333 

18,415 

14.072 

31,945 


591,766 


Born  at  the 
South. 


982,201 

462,699 

102,607 

180,524 

1,166,369 

1,197,712 

650,860 

660,600 

809,228 

1,158,886 

I,065,3lS 

694,96s 

1,219.821 

737,753 

1,197,337 

392,978 

12,679,861 


A  Macedonian  Cry. 


151 


TABLE    P. 

Natives  of  the  United  States  resident  in  each  Southern  State  in 
1 8 80,  with  section  of  Birth. 


Residing  in — 


Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi. . .  . 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina. 

Tennessee 

Texas 

Virginia 

West  Virginia. . 

Total 


Born  in  the 
United  States. 


1,252,771 
792,175 
137,140 
259-534 

1,531,616 

1,539.173 

S85,Soo 

852,137 
1,122,38s 
1,956,802 
1,396,008 

987,891 
1,525,657 
1-477,133 
1,497,869 

600,192 


Born  at 
the  Nortli 


17,864,336 


9.449 

3S,623 
24-SI3 

7,432 

5.S48 
66,074 

9,96S 
41,046 

6,025 

49i-055 

3,966 

3-463 

43.SS9 

65,998- 

7,116 

5i,6So 


876,445 


Born  at  the 
South. 


1,243,322 
753,552 
II2.327 
252,152 

1,525.768 

1,523,099 
875,832 
811,091 

1,116,363 

1,465,747 
1,392,042 

9S4.428 
1,481,768 
1,411-135 
1,490,753 

548,512 


16,987,891 


These  tables  show  that  while  there  has  been  an 
actual  numerical  gain  of  284,679  during  this  decade, 
1870-80,  in  the  entire  South,  the  Northern-born 
population  still  bears  so  ridiculously  small  a 
proportion  to  the  total,  in  all  but  five  of  the 
Southern  States,  as  to  waken  a  smile  when  one 
remembers  the  clamor  of  a  few  years  ago  in 
regard  to  "  carpet-baggers."  Only  think  of 
States  "  overrun  with  carpet-baggers"  in  the  pro- 
portions of,  say,  three  or  four  thousand  outsiders 


152 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


to  a  million  natives !  No  wonder  the  heart  of 
the  North  was  wrung  with  pity  for  the  sad  estate 
of  the  South  and  forgot  duty,  honor,  and  common- 
sense  in  listening  to  their  pathetic  plaints ! 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  well  to  observe  that 
this  numerical  increase  of  284,679  barely  keeps 
pace  with  the  increase  of  the  population.     In  1870 


TABLE   Q. 

Number  of  Northern-born   Inhabitants  in   eight  Southern    States 
in  1870,  and  in  1880. 


States. 


Virginia 

North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 


Total. 


1870. 


55,o8o 


14,072 

7,116 

3.014 

3,966 

2,564 

3,463 

6,613 

5,848 

2,257 

7,432 

4,829 

9,449 

7,503 

6,025 

14,228 

9,968 

53,267 


the  percentage  of  people  of  Northern  birth  in 
the  South  was  four  and  two-tenths;  in  1880  it  was 
four  and  seven-tenths — showing  an  increase  of  five- 
tenths  of  one  per  cent  in  ten  years  !  At  this  rate 
Northern  immigration  would  hardly  seem  likely 
to  become  an  important  factor  of  the  problem  we 
are  considering,  for  some  time  to  come. 


A  Macedonian  Cry,  153 

But  whatever  may  be  the  prospect  of  Northern 
immigration  considered  with  regard  to  the  whole 
South,  the  preceding  table  (Q)  shows  that  the  most 
sanguine  need  not  hope  for  the  States  therein 
named. 

Comparing  this  table  with  the  two  preceding 
ones,  we  find  that  while  there  was  again  of  nearly 
300,000  in  the  aggregate  Northern-born  popula- 
tion of  all  the  Southern  States  during  this  decade, 
in  the  eight  States  under  consideration  there  was 
an  actual  loss  of  nearly  two  thousand.  In  1870  the 
proportion  of  Northern-born  in  this  belt  was  only 
eight-tenths  of  one  per  cent  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion;  while  in  1880  even  this  was  reduced  by  one- 
fourth,  being  then  only  six-tenths  of  one  per  cent. 
At  this  rate  Northern  immigration  is  not  likely 
to  counteract  any  influences  that  may  spring  from 
the  increase  of  the  colored  race  in  this  belt — an 
increase,  it  will  be  remembered,  of  thirty-five  per 
cent  during  the  same  period.  In  Virginia,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  there  are 
fewer  Northern-born  residents  than  there  were  in 
1870,  and  in  all  of  the  States  of  this  belt  the  per- 
centage is  less  than  it  then  was. 

In  other  words,  the  proportion  of  foreign-born 
inhabitants     throughout    the    South    has    largely 


154  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

decreased,  while  the  number  of  native  Ameri- 
cans of  Northern  birth  in  the  "  Black  Belt  "  is 
steadily  becoming  less.  The  element  of  immi- 
gration, instead  of  showing  any  probability  of 
revolutionizing  the  Southern  life,  is  itself,  year  by 
year,  becoming  more  and  more  insignificant. 


White  Spaces  Show  Proportions, 

Accounting  for  Strange 
Things. 


'  I  'HE  reason  for  all  this  is  not  far  to  seek. 
■*■  The  South  boasts,  not  without  reason,  of 
the  hospitality  of  her  people.  The  stranger 
within  her  gates,  even  in  her  humblest  homes,  is 
royally  entertained.  Kindness  toward  a  guest, 
unwearying  ministration  to  his  pleasure  and  com- 
fort, is  instinctive  with  her  people.  At  the  same 
time  the  South  is  a  shocking  bad  step-mother. 
Her  people  know  nothing  about  the  art  of  making 
those  who  come  to  abide  with  them  feel  at  home. 


156  An  Appeal  to  Cczsar. 

The  immigrant,  seeking  to  establish  his  house- 
hold gods  in  any  one  of  the  Southern  States,  is 
received  with  effusive  hospitality.  So  long  as  he 
remains  a  guest,  nothing  could  exceed  the  kind- 
ness with  which  he  is  treated.  Hardly,  however, 
has  he  become  attached  to  the  soil  when  a 
strange  suspicion,  almost  animosity,  manifests  it- 
self with  a  peculiar  fear  that  he  may  find  some- 
thing which  he  shall  not  approve.  With  the 
utmost  kindness  and  hospitality  the  people  are 
yet  self-conscious,  devoted  to  their  own  ideals, 
and  jealous  to  the  utmost  degree  of  all  those 
who  differ  with  them  in  thought,  in  sentiment, 
or  in  method.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at 
that  such  is  the  fact.  Except  along  the  borders 
where  Northern  immigration  has  thrust  itself 
across  the  charmed  line,  there  has  hardly  been  such 
a  thing  as  a  movement  of  population  toward  the 
South  for  a  hundred  years.  Indeed,  it  is  nearly 
twice  that  period  since  there  can  be  said  to  have 
been  any  material  accessions  to  the  life  of  the 
older  Southern  States.  The  people  who  dwell 
within  their  borders  to-day  are  either  natives  of 
their  State  or  of  neighboring  Southern  communi- 
ties the  general  characteristics  of  which  are  the 
same  as  their  own.     They  know  nothing  of  the 


Accounting  for  Strange  Things.     157 

arts  of  accommodating  themselves  to  the  various 
shades  of  thought  which  the  influx  of  population 
from  other  regions  brings. 

To  the  people  of  the  North  this  seems  a 
strange,  almost  incomprehensible  thing.  For 
three  hundred  years  our  doors  have  been  open 
and  the  world  has  been  pouring  through  our 
homes,  in  at  the  front  door  and  out  at  the  back, 
until  we  have  become  cosmopolitan  in  our  tastes 
and  feelings.  A  farmer  from  New  England  finds 
himself  in  the  midst  of  a  Western  community 
composed  of  people  from  all  sections  of  the  coun- 
try and  almost  every  nationality  of  Europe  ;  in  a 
week  he  is  as  much  at  home  as  upon  his  granite 
hills ;  in  a  month  he  is  looked  upon  as  a  neigh- 
bor with  whom  all  are  acquainted  ;  in  a  year  it 
has  been  forgotten  that  he  has  not  always  dwelt 
among  them.  This  process  going  on  from  day 
to  day  at  the  North  and  West  has  given  to  the 
Northern  people  a  power  of  assimilation  not 
paralleled  in  any  other  country. 

All  of  this  the  South  has  lacked.  They  have 
lived  to  themselves ;  they  have  nourished  their 
own  sentiments  and  beliefs  ;  they  have  encour- 
aged each  other  by  that  sense  of  approbation 
that  builds  up  the  self-love  of  a  people.     Who- 


158  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ever  comes  bringing  different  ideas  is  in  a  sense 
regarded  as  hostile.  The  warm  welcome  which 
was  extended  to  him  as  a  guest  is  chilled  into 
coolness  when  he  becomes  a  neighbor.  The  South 
requires  all  who  come  to  dwell  within  her  borders 
to  become  Southerners  before  they  have  ceased 
to  be  strangers.  The  North  requires  no  change 
of  any  man  that  comes  to  build  up  her  interests 
and  be  one  among  her  people.  His  religious 
belief  is  almost  a  matter  of  indifference ;  his 
language  and  customs  and  the  traditions  of 
his  father-land  are  looked  upon  with  respect, 
if  not  with  approval.  The  South,  on  the  con- 
trary, demands  that  whoever  comes  within  her 
limits  shall  leave  his  former  life  behind  ;  he  shall 
become  not  only  part  and  parcel  of  her  material 
prospects,  but  he  shall  divest  himself  of  the  per- 
sonality which  he  brought  and  become  more 
ardent  in  his  worship  of  all  things  Southern  than 
even  those  who  are  to  the  manner  born.  In  all 
their  frantic  appeals  of  the  last  twenty  years  for 
immigration  there  will  be  noted  by  a  careful 
reader  an  undertone  defining  what  the  desired 
immigrant  must  not  be.  He  must  not  come 
bringing  with  him  new  ideas.  He  must  not 
come  with  any  thought  that  is  not  in  harmony 


Accounting  for  Strange  Things,     159 

with  the  civilization  that  surrounds  him.  He 
must  come  prepared  to  divest  his  mental  and 
moral  nature  of  all  the  impressions  that  they  have 
received  hitherto,  and  to  receive  and  adopt  the 
feelings  and  sentiments  of  the  vicinage  in  which 
he  expects  to  dwell.  This  distinctive  peculiarity 
is  not  the  result  of  any  feeling  of  animosity  upon 
the  part  of  the  Southern  people  toward  those 
whose  presence  they  really  desire.  It  is  only  an 
exemplification  of  the  fact  that  immigration  is 
desired,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  immigrant,  not 
with  the  purpose  of  receiving  him  as  a  con- 
stituent portion  of  the  life  of  which  he  is  to  be- 
come a  part,  but  simply  as  a  contributor  to  the 
general  wealth.  This  feeling,  too,  it  should  be 
remembered,  has  been  very  greatly  modified  in 
Texas  and  Missouri,  where  the  tide  of  foreign 
and  Northern  immigration  has  been  so  consider- 
able as  to  restrain  in  a  degree  its  manifestations. 
Even  here,  however,  it  is  as  perceptible  in  com- 
ing from  Illinois  or  Kansas  as  the  change  of  tem- 
perature in  entering  the  Gulf-stream. 

Besides,  there  is  really  very  little  opening  for 
immigration  to  the  South.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  vast  uncultivated  areas,  but  nearly  all  of 
these,  east  of  the  Mississippi  at  least,  have  been 


160  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

reduced  to  private  ownership,  and  the  peculiar 
attachment  which  the  Southern  man  has  for  real 
estate  is  such  that  valuable  lands  can  be  acquired 
only  at  high  prices.  Moreover,  the  conditions  of 
success  in  agricultural  operations,  the  methods  of 
cultivation,  and  the  requisites  for  the  care  of  the 
products  are  so  different  that  the  Northern  man 
or  foreign  emigrant,  unless  from  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  finds  himself  entirely  at  sea  in 
regard  to  them.  It  is  very  rarely,  indeed,  that 
one  of  these  immigrants  is  prosperous.  Perhaps 
hardly  one  in  a  hundred,  of  those  of  Northern 
birth  and  training,  who  have  undertaken  the  ex- 
periment of  cultivating  the  soil  of  the  South 
since  the  close  of  the  war,  have  been  successful. 
This  has  not  been  from  any  lack  of  intelligence 
or  experience ;  it  was  not  because  they  were  not 
good  farmers  at  home,  but  because  they  had  no 
knowledge  or  experience  of  the  conditions  essen- 
tial to  successful  farming  in  the  region  to  which 
they  went. 

Another  reason  why  immigration  is  not  likely 
to  take  place  to  any  extent  sufficient  to  modify 
the  characteristics  of  these  communities  is  the 
fact  that  there  is  no  demand  in  those  States  foi 
the  mere  hand-laborer.      The   cry  of  the  South 


Accounting  for  Strange   Things.      161 

since  the  war  has  been  not  for  laborers  but  for 
capitalists.  They  have  pleaded  with  the  outer 
world  that  it  should  come  and  invest  its  capital 
and  conduct  business  within  its  borders.  Mere 
capitalists  can  never  constitute  any  very  great 
proportion  of  the  life  of  any  community,  nor  will 
their  influence,  if  they  represent  a  foreign  ele- 
ment, ever  be  very  great. 

Of  mere  hand-laborers  the  South  has  enough 
and  to  spare,  if  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  is 
to  be  the  test.  The  farm-laborer  of  the  North 
would  be  foolish  indeed  to  go  to  the  South  to 
compete  with  the  negro  in  the  cultivation  of  cot- 
ton or  of  any  other  staple  at  the  prices  which 
labor  receives  in  that  region.  Not  only  can  he 
earn  the  equivalent  thereof  in  one-half  the  time 
upon  a  Northern  farm,  but  with  his  labor  there 
he  receives  also  bed  and  board  of  a  character 
that  would  seem  ruinously  extravagant  to  the 
Southern  landlord.  Instead  of  working  for  six 
or  eight  dollars  a  month  with  rations  composed 
of  three  pounds  of  bacon,  a  peck  of  meal,  and 
perhaps  a  pound  of  coffee  a  week,  the  Northern 
laborer  gets  without  difficulty  from  eighteen 
to  thirty  dollars  a  month  and  board  at  the  table 
of  his  employer  and  lodgment  beneath  his  roof. 


1 62  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

The  same  fact  operating  less  apparently  tends  to 
divert  from  the  South  almost  all  of  the  immigra- 
tion from  abroad.  Of  more  than  one  million  of 
immigrants  who  reached  our  shores  during  a 
specific  period  only  one  hundred  and  fifty-six 
went  to  the  State  of  Georgia.  Probably  not 
more  than  the  odd  fifty-six  remain  there  now. 
The  emigrant  laborer,  unless  it  be  the  Italian, 
cannot  compete  with  the  negro  upon  anything 
like  equal  terms.  The  colored  man  lives  upon 
wages  which  are  insignificant  as  compared  with 
those  of  the  Northern  laborer ;  is  contented  with 
a  hovel  for  himself  and  family  which  it  would  be 
an  insult  to  ask  the  Northern  laborer  to  occupy ; 
and,  finally,  is  accustomed  to  be  regarded  as  a 
menial.  He  does  not  account  it  an  insult  that  he 
is  required  to  remove  his  hat  when  he  approaches 
within  twenty  paces  of  his  employer,  nor  does  he 
consider  himself  affronted  at  any  disregard  that 
may  be  paid  to  his  demands  for  better  food  and 
prompter  pay.  He  knows  the  habits  of  the 
people  among  whom  he  lives.  He  understands 
their  methods  of  agriculture  and  dealing ;  and  if  he 
does  not  always  get  his  own,  he  at  least  secures  a 
fair  living  and  passes  on  from  year  to  year,  usually 
a  little  better  off  than  he  was  the  vear  before. 


Accounting  for  Strange  Things.      163 

The  mere  laborer,  therefore,  who  emigrates  to 
the  South  goes  into  direct  competition  with  the 
negro,  and  in  this  competition  every  advantage 
is  on  the  side  of  the  latter.  It  is  possible  that  the 
Italian  laborer  may  in  certain  instances  prove  his 
equal  so  far  as  the  amount  of  labor  performed  is 
concerned,  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  for 
two  hundred  years  the  cultivation  of  the  great 
Southern  staples  has  been  almost  the  sole  occupa- 
tion of  the  colored  race.  They  have,  as  it  were, 
inherited  the  methods  of  culture,  and  have  mas- 
tered, as  by  intuition,  the  economics  of  the 
plantation.  No  one  can  direct  them  so  well  as 
a  Southern  man  ;  no  one  so  well  as  those  with 
whom  they  have  been  reared  knows  their  char- 
acteristics or  merits  as  laborers.  The  master's 
methods  become  a  part  of  the  slave's  instinct. 
What  has  to  be  done  upon  the  plantation  he 
does,  perhaps  not  as  rapidly  nor  with  such  show 
of  accuracy  as  other  classes  of  laborers  display, 
but  with  more  certainty,  more  care,  and  with  that 
instinctive  readiness  that  only  inherited  knowl- 
edge can  give.  For  the  agricultural  labor  of  the 
South,  it  is  impossible  to  provide  any  substitute 
for  the  African.  It  is  his  field ;  he  holds  it  far 
beyond  all  competition ;  and  whosoever  seeks  to 


164  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

invade  it  must   adopt   not  only  his  methods  but 
come  down  to  his  level  also. 

The  same  is  true  in  a  less  exclusive  sense  of 
mechanical  laborers  at  the  South.  Little  by 
little,  all  of  the  plain  mechanical  labor  of  the 
South  is  centering  in  the  hands  of  the  colored 
people.  Long  before  the  abolition  of  slavery  it 
was  found  profitable  to  teach  certain  trades  to 
slaves.  Blacksmiths  and  carpenters,  house-paint- 
ers, and,  in  some  instances,  wagon-makers,  were 
to  be  found  among  the  slaves.  Almost  every 
plantation  had  its  rude  blacksmith-shop,  and  a 
slave  presided  at  the  forge  and  anvil.  Some 
masters  paid  large  sums  to  have  their  slaves 
taught  the  trade  of  the  carpenter,  so  far  as  build- 
ing could  be  taught  without  the  knowledge  of 
reading  and  writing  and  the  laws  of  mechanics. 
These  men  have  not  been  slow  to  seize  upon 
their  opportunities.  The  old  class  of  white 
mechanics  at  the  South,  the  "  bosses"  of  the 
ante-bellum  era,  are  becoming  fewer  and  fewer, 
while  the  young  colored  mechanics  are  becoming 
more  and  more  numerous.  I  stood  last  spring 
and  saw  a  house  in  process  of  erection  in  one  of 
the  Southern  cities.  It  was  a  splendid  structure, 
one    of   the   most    costly,    I    was    told,   when    it 


Accounting  for  Strange    Things.     165 

should  be  completed,  that  the  city  could  boast. 
Twenty-seven  men  were  engaged  in  labor  upon 
it.  Twenty-four  of  these  were  colored  men. 
The  reason  of  this  is  obvious.  Mechanical  con- 
struction requires  only  the  oversight  of  a  few 
trained  minds  and  the  operation  of  trained  hands. 
The  colored  man  works  cheaper  and  does  his 
work  as  well  as  the  white  mechanic.  A  North- 
ern carpenter  who  should  pack  his  kit  of  tools 
with  the  expectation  of  finding  labor  at  re- 
munerative rates  at  the  South  must  come  into 
contact  and  competition  with  this  labor — menial 
in  character,  but  now  free  and  rising.  Naturally 
he  cannot  stand  it.  The  colored  man's  board  and 
lodging  cost  but  a  fraction  of  what  the  white  man 
deems  necessary  to  his  comfort.  If  the  latter 
goes  South,  he  must  be  a  boss  and  not  a  worker. 
But  by  far  the  strongest  reason  that  can  be 
given  for  the  absence  of  either  Northern  or 
foreign  immigration  to  these  States  is  the  fact 
that  the  negro  is  already  there  in  such  numbers 
as  to  make  it  impossible  for  any  considerable 
body  of  whites  of  the  self-supporting  class  to  de- 
sire to  go  there.  It  matters  not  what  may  be  the 
apparent  advantages  of  soil  and  climate ;  it  mat- 
ters not  how  easily  a  living  may  be  made  ;  it  is  of 


1 66  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

little  import  how  soft  and  balmy  may  be  the 
climate  ;  even  the  charm  of  strange  surroundings 
and  the  luxury  of  abundant  fruits :  all  these 
count  but  little  to  the  man  who  is  seeking  a 
place  where  he  may  build  a  home  for  his  family. 
If  he  should  be  a  foreigner,  he  is  accustomed  to 
respect  within  his  own  sphere,  to  associates  of 
his  own  rank  and  class  in  life.  As  a  laborer  he 
finds  himself  at  once  shut  out  from  all  such 
associations.  His  wife  and  daughters  are  de- 
prived of  that  society  which  made  up  their  home- 
life  across  the  waters.  That  which  is  open  to 
them  is  of  a  strangely  unfamiliar  type.  They 
cannot  associate  with  the  colored  man  lest  they 
be  degraded  to  his  level.  They  are  not  re- 
garded as  the  equals  of  the  better  classes  of  the 
whites ;  and  in  many  portions  of  the  South  there 
is  only  that  strange,  sad,  half-caste  known  as  the 
"  poor  white"'  remaining — kindly  creatures,  good 
people,  in  the  main,  but  not  the  associates  one 
would  choose  for  himself.  The  foreign  emigrant 
comes  to  this  country  almost  invariably  with  the 
purpose  of  improving  his  condition.  His  desire 
is  to  make  money  and  to  establish  a  home.  Both 
of  these  conditions  he  finds  it  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  fulfill  at  the  South.     The  Northwest 


dc counting  for  Strange   Things.      16 


offers  a  more  inviting  field  for  his  labor  and  a  far 
more  attractive  location  for  his  home.  The  same 
things  are  true  in  a  much  greater  degree  of  the 
Northern  immigrant.  With  him  the  home- 
surroundings  are  especially  important.  He  is 
always  a  man  of  independent  nature.  If  he  is 
not  rich,  he  is  seldom  poor.  He  has  the  self- 
respecting  characteristics  of  the  region  from 
which  he  came.  He  does  not  care  so  much 
about  earning  a  dollar  to-day,  if  he  can  be  sure 
of  two  to-morrow.  He  is  willing  to  begin  early 
and  work  late  ;  but  -two  things  he  must  and  will 
have:  a  comfortable  home  and  pleasant  social 
surroundings.  If  he  must  work  like  a  slave  all 
the  week,  he  is  going  to  church  like  a  gentleman 
on  Sunday.  It  matters  not  how  humble  his 
position,  he  resents  at  once  any  implication  of 
superiority.  He  thinks  the  man  who  shoves  a 
jackplane  just  exactly  as  worthy  as  the  man  who 
owns  the  palace.  One  of  the  essential  conditions 
of  the  home  worth  living  in,  to  his  mind,  is  that 
it  shall  have  a  school-house  in  sight  of  the  door- 
step. He  has  no  sort  of  antipathy  to  the  negro 
as  a  man,  or  as  a  political  equal,  but  he  has  no 
notion  of  being  counted  a  "  nigger"  himself.  He 
is    too    proud    to    seek    admission    to    another's 


1 68  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

house,  but  resents  instinctively  the  idea  that  he 
is  not  as  good  as  the  best.  He  has  no  thought 
of  approving  all  that  he  finds,  and  expresses  his 
disapprobation  upon  occasion  without  any  idea 
of  concealment  or  hesitation.  To  such  a  man 
the  South,  while  sometimes  offering  considerable 
opportunity,  rarely  offers  any  attraction.  If  he 
were  willing  for  himself  and  wife  to  disregard  all 
its  unpleasant  features,  he  is  apt  to  feel  that  he 
cannot  take  his  children  where  they  must  com- 
pete in  the  race  of  life  with  the  colored  man. 
While  he  may  find  friends  to  whom  he  becomes 
greatly  attached,  yet,  as  a  whole,  there  is  no 
denying  the  fact  that  he  is  not  in  harmony  with 
Southern  life,  and  cannot  be  made  so.  He  is  a 
discordant  element  which  no  skill  can  bring  into 
unison  with  the  life  about  him.  However 
honestly  he  may  endeavor  to  assimilate  himself 
to  his  surroundings,  it  is  impossible  for  him  to 
do  so.  In  some  instances  the  charms  of  climate 
or  exceptional  success  in  business  may  for  a  time 
— perhaps  even  for  a  lifetime — overcome  the 
difficulties  which  surround  him.  There  are 
Northern  men  scattered  throughout  the  South, 
of  this  very  type,  who  have  been  successful,  and 
are    in  a  sense  esteemed   by  the  communities  in 


Accounting  for  Strange   Things.      1 69 

which  they  live  ;  yet  they  are  not  a  part  of 
them  ;  they  cannot  become  a  part  of  them  ;  and 
no  length  of  residence  is,  as  a  rule,  sufficient 
to  put  the  Northern  man  or  the  foreign  immi- 
grant thoroughly  in  harmony  with  Southern 
life. 

Therefore,  because  the  colored  man  is  at  the 
South  already,  in  equal  force  with  the  whites ; 
because  of  his  superior  reproductive  power  and 
the  prospect  that  he  will  very  soon  greatly 
exceed  the  whites  in  number  ;  because  the  South- 
ern white  man  cannot  or  will  not  extend  to  those 
coming  into  his  vicinage  that  peculiar  assimila- 
tive recognition  which  has  built  up  the  West  — 
because  of  all  these  things,  it  matters  not  how 
great  the  opportunity,  it  matters  not  how  fertile 
the  soil,  it  matters  not  how  rich  the  mineral 
treasures,  it  matters  not  how  varied  and  marvel- 
ous the  manufacturing  facilities  may  be,  North- 
ern immigration  will  not  seek  the  South  (and 
especially  the  States  we  have  named  lying  in  the 
Black  Belt)  in  sufficient  numbers  to  constitute 
any  material  element  of  its  life — not,  at  least, 
until  some  very  notable  change  has  been  made  in 
its  social  economy.     Of  such  change  there  is  no 


i/O  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

present  indication,  and  the  most  careful  analysis 
of  the  social  statistics  offers  no  ground  for  reason- 
able hope  that  any  immigration  of  whites  to 
these  States  will  in  any  sensible  degree  affect  the 
numerical  relation  of  the  races. 


The  Other  Side  of  the  Picture. 

THE  data  we  have  given  effectually  exclude 
all  prospect  of  any  modification  of  the  rate 
of  increase  in  the  white  race  by  any  movement  of 
population  from  without  the  States  we  have  under 
consideration,  so  far  as  the  white  race  is  concerned. 
As  regards  the  negro,  it  is  perhaps  sufficient  to 
say  that  there  is  not  any  present  indication  of  a 
tendency  to  move  into  these  States  from  any 
other  part  of  the  country. 

It  remains,  then,  to  consider  whether  there  are 
any  evidences  of  any  interior  movement  of  popu- 
lation of  either  race  that  might  affect  this  propor- 


172  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

tion.     Of  course  any  special  migratory  tendency 
on  the  part  of  either  race  would  naturally  reduce 
its  rate  in  the  future  and  increase  the  proportion- 
ate advantage  of  the  other  race.     A  careful  analy- 
sis of  the  statistics  of  migration  of  the  natives  of 
each  race   in    the  different  States  of  the  Union 
reveals  some  curious  facts.     Among  these  are  the 
following,  which    would   no    doubt    be    deemed 
almost  incredible   were    they  not    unmistakably 
sustained  by  the  figures  of  the  census: 
1. — A  greater  proportion  of  the  native  whites  of  the 
South  than  of  the  native  whites  of  the  North 
emigrate  from  the  State  of  their  birth. 
2. —  There  are  a  greater  number  of  native  whites  of 
the  South  residing  in  the  North  than  of  North- 
ern natives  living  in  the  South. 
3. —  The  percentage   of  the    native  whites  of   the 
South  living  at  the  North  is  almost  thrice  as 
great  as  of  white  natives  of  the  North  resid- 
ing at  the  South. 
4. — The  proportion   of  Southern  whites  zvho   are 
removing  from    the  State  of  their  birth   is 
rapidly  increasing. 
5. —  The  percentage  of  colored  natives  of  Southern 
States  who  migrate  from  the  State  of  birth  is 
perceptibly  dim inishing. 


The  Other  Side  of  the  Pi 


dure. 


If  these  facts  do  not  stimulate  the  desire  of  the 
reader  to  see  and  examine  the  tables  on  which 
they  are  based,  it  is  certain  that  he  has  little  inter- 
est not  merely  in  social  and  ethnological  questions, 
but  also  in  matters  affecting  most  closely  the  in- 
terest and  safety  of  the  country.  We  regret  the 
necessity  of  troubling  the  reader  with  so  many 
tables,  but  the  facts  are  of  so  startling  and  unex- 


TABLE  R. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Arative    Whites   of  each  Northern 
State  resident  in  other  Northern  States  in  1S70,  and  in  18 So. 


174 


An  Appeal  to  Casar. 


pected  a  character  that  we  dare  not  set  them  forth 
without  the  fullest  and  most  convincing  proof. 

The  first  four  of  these  tables  indicate  the  migra- 
tory movements  of  the  native  whites  of  the  re- 
spective sections.  It  will  be  seen  (Tables  R  and  S) 
that  in  1870  twenty-three  and  one-tenth  per  cent  of 
the  whites  born  in  the  Northern  States  resided 
outside  the  State  of  birth.     In  1880  this  ratio  had 


TABLE  S. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Native  Whites  of  each  Northern 
State  resident  in  Southern  States  in  1870,  and  in  1SS0. 


1870. 

1880. 

White 
Natives  of— 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  the 

Southern 
States. 

Per 

cent. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  the 

Southern 
States. 

Per 
cent. 

California 

Colorado  ..    .. 
Connecticut. .. 

Illinois 

Indiana 

172,499 

7.489 

477.973 

1,461,928 

1.353.298 

500.144 

68,970 

695,399 

i,i34-77i 

562.087 

137,365 

22,333 

4,755 

365.576 

696,059 

4,000.141 

2,606.884 

40,844 

3,341,153 
167,032 
418.125 
543,076 

i,379 

185 

6,708 

94,H4 

73-190 

24,829 

5,952 

5,831 

14,148 

7,033 

1,600 

1,359 

81 

3,281 

12,145 

66,802 

122,137 

158 

105,319 

1,997 

5,32i 

7.525 

0.8 
2.4 
i-4 

6.4 
5  •  3 
4.6 
8.1 
0.9 
i  .2 
1 .2 

6.0 
1.6 
0.9 
1.6 
1.6 
4.6 
0.3 

3-i 
1.1 
1.2 
i-3 

327,956 
29.757 
527.671 
2,225,804 
1,770.964 
934.489 
264.279 
736,664 

1,337.999 

900,161 

328.679 

110,683 

14,432 

368,614 

871,056 

4,672.739 

3,236,597 

7i,55i 

4,100,738 

i97,H2 

425.281 

871,129 

2,939 

912 

7,186 

148.575 

102,615 

36,996 

17,612 

6,365 

15.319 

10,862 

2,697 

2.732 

180 

3.377 

14,170 

75,96o 

160,793 

437 

124.319 

1,240 

5,548 

12,576 

0.7 
30 
i-3 
6.6 

5-5 
3-8 

Kansas 

6.6 
0.8 

Massachusetts. 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Nebraska 

Nevada 

N.  Hampshire. 
New  Jersey — 

New  York 

Ohio  

1  1 

o.Z 
2.4 
1 .0 
0.9 

i-5 
1.6 

4-9 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania.. 
Rhode  Island.. 

Vermont 

Wisconsin 

0.6 

is 

i-4 

Total 

i8,777,90i 

561,094 

2.9 

24,324,355         753,4io 

3  0 

The  Other  Side  of  the  Picture.     175 

been  reduced  tcf twenty-two  and  three-tenths  per  cent, 
showing  a  perceptible  diminution  of  the  migratory 
tendency  on  the  part  of  native  Northern  whites. 

The  proportion  of  native  Southern  whites  living 
outside  the  State  of  birth  in  1870  will  be  seen 
(Tables  T  and  U)  to  have  been  twenty-two  and 
nine-tenths  per  cent,  and  in  1880  tzventy-two  and 
seven-tenths  per  cent ;  being  four-tenths  per  cent 
greater  than  the  ratio  of  Northern  whites  living 
outside  their  State  of  birth,  and  showing  an  ap- 

TABLE  T. 

Number  and  Percentage   of  Native    Whites  of  each    Southern 
State  resident  in  other  Southern  States  in  1870,  and  in  1880. 


1870. 

l88o. 

White 
Natives  of — 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in   other 

Southern 

States. 

Per 
cent. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in   other 

Southern 

States. 

Per 
cent. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware.  . . . 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 
Tennessee 

521,934 
212.630 
106,114 
61.465 
718,472 

1,209,123 
276,750 
582,618 
324,992 
930.515 
865,629 
418,514 

1,104,843 
273,133 

1,380.668 

144,612 

34.873 

9,071 

7,716 

69,874 

141.824 
29,855 
33,i8i 
74,875 
40.155 

165,245 
80,750 

268.853 
13.795 

173.582 

27.7 
16.4 

8-5 
12.5 

9-7 
11. 6 
10.8 

5-7 
23-3 
19.0 
19.0 
21.4 
24.3 

5-0 

12.4 

708.109 
382,150 
124.506 
98,464 
932,027 
1.522,911 

399-145 

700,764 

472.472 

1,416,756 

1,027,459 

500,338 

1,364,900 

621,482 

1,682.348 

192.966 

59-76i 

10.061 

11,809 

104,138 

180,229 

25,134 

36.251 

in. 495 

80,247 

150,362 

126.563 

314,829 

2i,377 

398.734 

27.2 
15-6 

8.0 
11. 4 
11. 6 
11. 1 

6.2 

5-i 
23.5 

5-6 
14.6 
25.0 
23.0 

3-4 

23-i 

Virginia      and 
West  Virginia 

Total 

8,987,400 

1,297,261 

14.4 

",953.831 

1,823,956 

15-2 

1 76 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


parent  decrease  of  two-tenths  per  cent  of  migration 
of  native  Southern  whites  during  this  decade. 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  tables  that  the  num- 
ber of  Northern  whites  residing  in  the  Southern 
States  has  increased  from  561,094  to  753,410,  and 
the  ratio  from  tzvo  and  nine-tenths  per  cent  to  three 
and  four-tenths  per  cent,  a  gain  of  one-half  of  one 
per  cent  in  ten  years.  During  the  same  time  the 
number  of  Southern  whites  living  in  Northern 
States  has  increased  from  765,363  in  1870  to 
893,381    in    1880;  though  the  ratio  has  decreased 

TABLE  U. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Native    Whites  of  each    Southern 
State  resident  in  Northern  States  in  1870,  and  in  1SS0. 


1870. 

18S0. 

White 
Natives  of — 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in 

Northern 

States. 

Per 
cent. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in 

Northern 

States. 

Per 
cent. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

52L934 
212.630 
106,114 
61.465 
718,472 

1,200.123 
276.750 
582.618 
324,992 
930.515 
865,629 
418.514 

1,104,843 
273,133 

1.380,668 

7,39i 

7,402 
22,528 

1,127 

9,367 
191,814 

9,490 
86,979 

4,7i5 
103,305 
52,315 
",463 
67,993 

5,247 

184,227 

1.4 

3-4 
21.2 

1.8 

i-3 
i5-7 

3-4 
14.9 

1.4 
11. 0 

6. 9 

3-o 
6.2 
1.9 

13-4 

708,109 
382,150 
124,506 
98,464 
932,027 

1,522,911 
399,H5 
700,764 
472.472 

1,416,756 

1,027.459 
500.338 

1,364,900 
621,482 

1,682,348 

8,232 

10,587 

26,478 

i,93i 

10,615 

193,188 

12,037 

98,471 

7,608 

179,753 

34,556 

10,200 

74,952 

9,o44 

215,729 

1.2 
2.7 

21.2 
1.9 
1 . 1 

12.6 
3-2 

14.0 
1.1 

12.6 
3-4 
2.0 

5-5 
1.4 

Virginia      and 
West  Virginia 

11 .0 

Total 

8,987,400 

765,363 

8.5 

",953,831 

893,381 

7-5 

The  Other  Side  of  the  Picture,     i  7  7 

from  eight  and  five-tenths  to  seven  and  five-tenths 
per  ceiit.  This  apparent  decrease  in  the  ratio  is 
unquestionably  due  to  the  more  complete  enu- 
meration of  the  Southern  States  in  1880. 

It  also  appears,  from  these  tables,  that  there 
were  203,919  more  Southern  whites  resident  in  the 
North  in  1870  than  there  were  Northern  whites 
resident  in  the  South  at  that  time ;  and  despite  a 
slight  decrease  of  percentage  as  compared  with 
the  aggregate  white  population  of  the  South  in 
1880,  there  were  still  199,527  more  Southern 
whites  dwelling  at  the  North  than  Northern 
"  carpet-baggers"  at  the  South. 

It  will  be  observed,  however,  that  the  emigra- 
tion from  either  section  to  the  other  is  not  suffi- 
cient materially  to  affect  the  life  of  either.  The 
tables  show  two  great  streams  of  domestic  mi- 
gration. One  flows  from  the  older  Northern 
States  westward  to  newer  Northern  Territories. 
It  throws  off  a  branch  to  the  Southwest  which 
touches  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Kentucky,  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Tennessee,  with  perceptible  force, 
though  quite  insignificant  as  compared  with  the 
volume  of  the  stream.  The  other  stream  has  its 
origin  in  the  older  Southern  States,  and  sends  its 
main  volume  into  the  newer  States  of  the  South- 


178  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

west,  though  its  northern  branch  is  proportion- 
ately three  times  as  great  as  the  southern  fork  of 
the  northern  stream. 

In  other  words,  the  percentage  of  native  South- 
ern whites  living  at  the  North  is  more  than  three 
times  -as  great  as  the  percentage  of  Northern 
whites  living  at  the  South. 

The  two  following  tables  show  that  in  the  States 
especially  under  consideration  the  ratio  of  North- 
ern emigration  among  the  native  whites,  except 
in  the  State  of  Virginia,  is  considerably  less  than 
the  average  of  the  entire  Southern  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  ratio  of  emigration 
from  these  States  to  other  Southern  States  was  in 
1870  two  per  cent  and  in  1880  four  per  cent  above 
the  average  of  the  entire  South.  As  this  is  by 
much  the  larger  class,  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that 
this  movement,  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
these  States  receive  so  small  a  number  of  North- 
ern immigrants, — having  in  1880  only  six-tenths 
of  one  per  cent  of  Northern-born, — throws  the  bal- 
ance of  white  migration  tremendously  against 
these  States,  which  are  losing  steadily  almost 
one-fourth  of  their  native  whites,  and  receiving 
both  of  foreign-born  and  Northern-born  whites, 
united,  hardly  one  per  cent  of  a  like  number.     This 


The  Other  Side  of  the  Picture.      1 79 


TABLE   V. 

Number  and  Percentage  of   White  Natives  of  Southern   States 
resident  in  the  North  in  1S70,   and  in  1880. 


1S7O. 

I 

38o. 

States. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  North- 
ern States 

Per 
cent. 

Residing  in 
the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  North- 
ern States 

Per 
cent. 

Virginia      and 

West  Virginia 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

1.380,668 
865,629 
418,514 
718,472 
61.465 
521,934 
324,992 
276,750 

184,227 
52.315 
",463 
9,367 
1,127 
7,39i 
4,715 
9,490 

i3-4 
6.9 
3  0 
1  3 
1.8 
1.4 
1.4 
34 

1,682,348 
1,027,459 
500.338 
932.027 
98.464 
708,109 
472,472 
399-J45 

185.396 
34,556 
10,200 
10,615 

1,931 

8,232 
7,608 
12,037 

11. 0 
3-4 
2.0 

1.9 
1.2 
1.1 
3-2 

Total   

4,568,424 

280,095 

6.2 

5,820.362 

270,575 

4.6 

TABLE   W. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  White  Natives  of  Southern   States 
resident  in  other  Southern  States  in  1S70,   and  in   1 8 So. 


White 
Natives  of- 


Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 


Virginia* 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Georgia 

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 


[,380.668 
865,629 
418.514 
718.472 
61,465 
52i,934 
324.992 
276,750 


Total I      4,5c: 


,424 


Residing 
in  other 

Southern 
States. 


Per 

cent. 


12.4 

19.0 
21.4 

9-7 
12.5 
=7-7 
23.3 
10.8 

16.7 


1SS0. 


the  L  nited  c„„.,„„ 
Srateq  Southern 
btates-      ;    States. 


Tcr 
cent. 


1,682.348 

398,734 

23.1 

1,027,459 

150,362  1 

14.0 

500,338 

120,5*3 

25.0 

032,027 

104,138 

11. 6 

98.464 

11,809 

11. 4 

708,109 

192,966 

27.2 

472,472 

111,495   j 

23-5 

399,145 

25.134 

C.2 

5,820,362 

1,121,201    j 

i9-5 

*  Including  West  Virj 
rately  in  census  of  1870. 


inia.  because  place  of  birth  was  not  given  sepa- 


i  So 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


steady  depletion  of  the  white  race  in  the  States 
under  consideration  must  greatly  enhance  the 
prospect  of  the  early  predominance  of  the  blacks 
throughout  the  entire  Belt. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  will  appear  from  the  fol- 
lowing tables  that  almost  all  the  conditions  which 
apply  to  the  migration  of  the  Southern  whites 
are  reversed  in  the  case  of  the  blacks,  and  even 
these  favorable  conditions  are  greatly  emphasized 
in  their  special  application  to  the  colored  race 
of  the  States  we  have  designated  the  Black  Belt. 


TABLE   X. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Colored  Natives  of  Southern   States 


resident  in  other  Southern  States  in   ii 


and  in  1 8 So. 


187O. 

ISSO. 

Colored 
Natives  of— 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in  other 

Southern 

States. 

Per 

cent. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  other 

Southern 
States. 

Per 
cent. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi    ... 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

451. 191 

74,786 

26.798 

62.560 

588,764 

271.994 

287,3^ 

200,265 

376.746 

108,376 

407,954 

505,623 

324,734 

140,037 

722.394 

74,127 
10,176 
506 
5,426 
92.293 
37,842 
21,801 
19,182 
54,922 
10.035 
80,648 

94.513 

56,671 

4,396 

163,983 

16.4 

13-6 

i.8 

8.6 
15.6 
J3-5 

7-5 

9-5 
14.0 

9.2 
17.0 
18.7 
17  4 

3-  ! 

22.6 

610.139 
137,089 
30,406 
95.822 
785,830 
32S.754 
417,391 
231,241 
583,645 
137.462 
608.812 
682.063 
419,615 
291,189 

843. iSS 

99,221 

11.538 

608 

6,480 
104,663 
35,9o8 
27,838 
17,324 
68,001 

9,457 
80,677 
89,529 
66,725 

8,747 

150,665 

16.2 
8.4 
1.9 
6.6 

13.3 

10.9 
6.6 
7-4 

11. 6 

69 
13.2 
13. 1 

3.0 

17  9 

Virginia       and 
West  Virginia 

Total 

4,609.541 

726,521 

15  s 

6,202.646 
1 

777.481       12.5 

The  Other  Side  of  the  Picture.     181 


TABLE   Y. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Colored  Natives  of  Southern    States 

resident  in  Northern   States  in   1S70,   and  in   1SS0. 


1870. 

ISSO. 

Colored 

Natives  of — 

Residing  in   Residing  '    p 
the  United    in  North-     "J 
States.       ern  States           ' 

1 

1 

Residing  in 

!  the  United 

States. 

i 

Residing      p 
in  North-   £tr 
ern  States  cent* 

Alabama  ...    . 
Arkansas.   ... 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maryland 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 

Tennessee 

Texas 

451. iqi 
74,786 
26,798 
62,560 
588.764 
271,994 
287.319 
200,265 
376.746 
108,376 
467,954 
505,623 
324,734 
140,037 

722,394 

2,646 
2,147 
6,078 
176 
2,107 

28,469 
1.562 

13,663 
2.464 
2,840 
8,075 
2,825 
7,433 
335 

37,833 

0  5 
2.7 

22.6 
0.2 
o-3 

10.4 
0.5 
6.8 
06 

11. 8 
i-7 
0.5 
2.2 
0.2 

5-i 

610,139 
137,089 
30.406 
95,822 
785.830 
328,754 
417,391 
231,241 
583,645 
137,462 
608,812 
682.063 
419,615 
291,189 

843,188 

3,202 
1,613 
7,112 

537 

3,229 
40,228 

3,205 
17,218 

5,706 
16,110 
12,223 

3-715 
*4,457 

2,898 

48,940 

0.5 

1.1 

23-3 

0.5 

0.4 
12.2 
0.7 
7  4 
0.9 
11. 7 
2.0 
°-5 
3-4 
0.9 

5-4 

Virginia      and 

West  Virginia 

Total 

4.609,541 

118,653 

2  5 

6,202,646 

180,393 

2.9 

TABLE    Z. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Colored  Natives  of  States  of  the  Black 

Belt  resident  in  Northern  States  in  1S70,  and  in  18 So. 


[87O. 

Colored 

Natives  of — 

Residing  in 

Residing 

Per 

the  United 

in  North- 

States. 

ern  States 

Virginia      and 

W.  Virginia. 

722,394 

37.833 

North  Carolina 

467,954 

8.075 

i-7 

South  Carolina 

^0^,023 

2.825 

°-5 

Georgia 

588,764 

2,107 

0.3 

Florida 

62,560 

176 

0.2 

Alabama 

451,191 

2,646 

0.5 

Mississippi 

•     376.746 

2.464 

[0.6 

Louisiana.  .    .. 

287.319 

1.562 

o-5 

Total 

3,462,551 

57,688 

1.6 

182 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar, 


TABLE   AA. 

Number  and  Percentage  of  Colored  Natives  of  States  of  the  Black 
Belt  resident  in  other  Southern  States  in  1 870,  and  in  1880. 


1870. 

1 8  So. 

Colored 

Natives  of— 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 
in  other 

Southern 
States. 

Per 
cent. 

Residing  in 

the  United 

States. 

Residing 

in  other 

Southern 

States. 

Per 
cent. 

Virginia     and 

W.  Virginia. 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Georgia  

Florida 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana 

722,394 
467,954 
505,623 
588,764 
62,560 
451,191 
376,746 
287,319 

163,983 
80,648 
94,5*3 
92,293 
5,426 
74,127 
54,922 
21,801 

22.6 
17.0 
18.7 
15.6 

8.6 
16.4 
14.6 

7-5 

843,188 
608,812 
682,063 
785,830 
95,822 
610,139 
583,645 
4i7,39i 

150.665 
80,677 
89,529 

104,663 

6,480 

99,221 

68,001 

27,838 

17.9 
13.2 
13. 1 
i3-i 

6.6 
16.2 
11. 6 

6.6 

Total 

3,462,551 

587,713 

16.9 

4,626,890 

627,074 

13-5 

It  will  be  seen  by  a  comparison  of  the  pre- 
ceding tables  that  the  ratio  of  colored  natives 
residing  in  all  the  Southern  States  outside  the 
State  of  birth  fell  during  the  last  census-decade 
from  fifteen  and  eight -tenths  per  cent  to  twelve 
and  one-tenth  per  cent,  and  increased  numerically 
only  twenty-one  thousand.  At  the  same  time 
the  Northward  migration  of  the  colored  race  in- 
creased only  sixty  thousand,  or  barely  three-tenths 
of  one  per  cent.  In  the  case  of  the  States  of  the 
Black  Belt  the  facts  are  very  striking:  the  number 
of  colored  natives  residing  outside  the  State  of 
birth  in  1870  was  sixteen  and  nine-tenths  per 
cent,  which   in    1880  had    fallen  to  thirteen  and 


The   Other  Side  of  the  Picture.     183 

Jive-tenths  per  cent,  while  the  number  who  had 
migrated  Northward  had  increased  only  twenty- 
two  thousand,  or  one-tenth  of  one  per  cent.  We 
have  then  these  conditions  developed  by  an 
analysis  of  the  census  returns,  and  a  comparison 
of  the  tables  given  : 

First.  The  colored  race  is  increasing  at  a  very 
much  more  rapid  rate  than  the  whites  in  these 
States. 

Second.  The  native  white  population  of  these 
States  is  being  rapidly  depleted  by  emigration, 
and  is  receiving  no  appreciable  counterbalancing 
accessions  from  foreign  or  Northern  immigration. 

Third.  The  proportion  of  colored  natives  of 
these  States  residing  outside  the  State  of  birth  is 
much  less  than  that  of  the  whites,  and  is  steadily 
decreasing. 

Fourth.  These  conditions  are  constantly  gain- 
ing in  force  as  regards  both  races ;  that  is,  the 
outflow  of  the  whites  is  rapidly  increasing,  and 
that  of  the  blacks  is  steadily  diminishing,  in  com- 
parison with  the  whole  number  of  each  race. 

Every  possible  view  which  we  have  been  able 
to  take  of  the  social  statistics  of  these  States  con- 
firms the  conclusion  at  which  we  have  already 
arrived,  that  before  the  conclusion  of  this  century 


184  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

we  shall  have  a  chain  of  States,  extending  from  the 
Potomac  to  the  Mississippi,  in  every  one  of  which 
the  colored  race  will  have  a  clear  and  indisputable 
majority,  and  in  several  of  which  their  predomi- 
nance will  be  very  nearly  in  the  ratio  of  tivo  to  one. 


I    II    II      I    II    II 


The  Black  Republics. 

r  I  'HE  basis-conditions  of  society  at  the  South 
■*■      are  such  as  to  tend  very  actively  to  increase 
the  disproportion  of  the    races    and    hasten    the 
numerical  preponderance  of  the  blacks  throughout 
the  belt  we  have  under  consideration.     The  most 
important  of  these  conditions  are  the  following: 
I. —  The  farther  the  Freedman  gets  from  slavery 
the  more  important   and  dangerous-  a  rival 
zuill  he  become  to  the  whites  who  are  depend- 
ent upon  their  own  labor  for  self-support. 
Already  the  aggressions  of  the  colored  man  in 


1 86  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

this  direction  are  noticeable.  Gradually,  and  not 
so  slowly  either,  the  colored  man  is  driving  the 
white  man  out  of  many  of  the  avenues  to  self- 
support  throughout  the  South.  The  white  black- 
smith is  becoming  a  more  and  more  infrequent 
object  even  in  the  upland  regions  of  the  South. 
Masons,  carpenters,  even  contractors  for  the 
plainer  sorts  of  mechanical  work  are  so  common 
that  they  have  ceased  to  be  at  all  noticeable 
among  the  colored  people  of  the  South.  It  may 
safely  be  said  that  the  race  is  now  doing  at  least 
its  own  building.  It  is  constructing  also  a  great 
portion  of  the  implements  it  uses.  It  has  al- 
ready furnished  its  own  religious  teachers  and 
pastors.  They  may  not  be  the  best  in  the  world, 
but  they  are  the  ones  their  people  desire,  appre- 
ciate, and  support.  It  is  not  probable  that  one 
per  cent  of  the  colored  race  of  the  South  habitu- 
ally listen  to  the  ministrations  of  a  white  clergy- 
man. These  colored  clergy  are  in  a  sense  com- 
petitors of  the  white  ministry;  for  their  con- 
gregations represent  productive  forces  which, 
during  the  time  of  slavery,  contributed  very  con- 
siderably to  the  maintenance  of  the  white  minis- 
try. The  colored  race  is  rapidly  coming  also  to 
furnish  its  own  teachers.     The  natural  source  of 


The  Black  Republics.  187 

pedagogic  supply  in  a  country  like  ours  is  the 
young  men  or  women  who  teach  for  a  few  terms 
on  the  way  to  another  destiny — a  profession  or 
marriage.  This  work  absorbs  a  large  proportion 
of  our  best  young  talent.  The  young  white  man 
of  the  South  naturally  dislikes  to  teach  a  "  nig- 
ger" school.  It  is  very  rarely  that  he  dare  risk 
the  loss  of  caste  by  doing  so  There  are  some 
few  instances  in  schools  of  higher  grade.  Some 
middle-aged  white  men  teach  in  the  colored 
public  schools,  perhaps,  but  they  are  rare.  There 
are  many  more  instances  of  middle-aged  women 
doing  so.  It  is  possible  that  some  young  South- 
ern white  women  may  teach  in  these  schools  too. 
We  do  not  remember  an  instance.  The  more 
advanced  the  race  becomes  the  more  surely  it  will 
seize  upon  its  own  professional  work  also.  The 
colored  teacher  will  not  come  into  the  white 
schools,  but  he  will  limit  the  range  of  the  white 
teacher  to  his  own  race.  This  is  at  the  same  time 
an  expansion  of  the  opportunity  of  the  colored 
race  and  a  limitation  of  that  of  the  white  race. 
As  the  range  of  the  one  is  widened  that  of  the 
other  is  measurably  narrowed. 

The  result  of  these  lines  of  rivalry  must  be  to 
vastly  increase  the   white  migration   from   these 


1 88  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

States.  This  migration,  too,  will  be  of  the  very 
best  classes — the  self-supporting  Southern  whites. 
The  South  offers  little  opportunity  for  that  great 
class  who  form  the  vast  reserve  of  Northern  life 
— the  intelligent,  industrious  poor,  who  begin  with 
nothing  and  end  with  affluence.  Between  the  man- 
ual labor  which  the  negro  either  holds  or  renders 
worthless  by  his  competition,  and  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, there  is  little  place  for  a  self-supporting 
white  man  in  Southern  life.  The  mechanic  can  only 
be  a  boss.  He  must  go  to  the  North  if  he  would  find 
scope  for  his  activity  and  at  the  same  time  secure 
the  rewards  of  intelligent  exertion.  Already  from 
every  portion  of  the  South  intelligent,  active,  as- 
piring men  have  come  into  Northern  business  and 
are  found  throughout  the  country  as  agents,  com- 
mercial travelers,  business  men  of  all  kinds,  work- 
ing their  way  up  in  the  struggle  of  Northern  life. 
This  aggression  of  the  race  which  requires  the 
least — the  race  which  is  the  stronger  in  the  possi- 
bility of  self-support — upon  that  which  is  weaker 
and  more  deficient  so  far  as  self-help  is  concerned, 
must  constantly  increase.  In  the  struggle  be- 
tween races  it  is  not  the  commanding  intellect,  it 
is  not  culture,  it  is  not  the  intellectual  power  of 
the  individual  that  prevails,  but  the  capacity  to 


The  Black  Republics.  189 

subsist  upon  little,  to  endure  hardship,  to  perform 
labor,  to  thrive  under  physical  disadvantage.  The 
white  man  cannot  compete,  in  any  field  of  labor 
except  the  highest,  with  the  colored  man  at  the 
South.  He  may  do  more  work  and  better  work  ; 
he  may  use  more  skill  and  achieve  better  results 
even  on  the  plantation  ;  but  he  demands  a  higher 
price  ;  he  cannot  live  upon  the  same  food  and  be 
happy  amid  the  same  surroundings ;  he  cannot 
compete  upon  even  terms  with  the  man  whom  he 
has  been  accustomed  to  despise.  So  that  in  the 
struggle  of  race,  granting  the  continuance  of  pre- 
sent conditions  or  those  which  are  likely  to  pre- 
vail, unless  there  be  some  great  and  abnormal 
social  revolution,  the  colored  man  is  certain  in  the 
future  to  increase  far  more  rapidly  in  comparison 
with  the  whites  than  in  the  past. 
2. —  The  next  most  important  condition  bearing  upon 
this  subject  is  the  fact  that  colored  emigration 
from  these  States  is  likely  to  decrease  rather 
than  increase. 
The  social  conditions  of  the  newer  States  of  the 
Southwest  are  not  attractive  to  the  freedman. 
He  realizes  that  it  is  better  for  him  to  have  a  lit- 
tle and  hold  that  in  comparative  security  where 
the    mere    numerical    preponderance    of  his    race 


190  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

affords  him  a  sort  of  protection,  than  to  yield  to 
the  blandishments  of  higher  wages  when  exposed 
to  lawless  violence.  Besides  that,  it  is  much 
easier  for  him  to  gratify  his  highest  ambition  and 
get  a  home  of  his  own,  however  humble,  in  the 
older  Eastern  States  than  in  the  richer  Western 
ones.  It  will  be  found,  therefore,  that,  all  through 
the  belt  we  are  considering,  the  negro  is  making 
a  permanent  lodgment  on  the  poorer  lands  that 
skirt  the  richer  regions.  A  bit  of  land,  a  house 
that  hardly  seems  sufficient  to  keep  out  the  storm, 
and  the  colored  man  has  a  castle.  To  this  home, 
its  surroundings  and  associations,  he  is  ardently 
attached.  He  has  not  so  much  ambition  for 
wealth  and  luxuries  as  his  white  neighbors.  A 
modest  home  and  humble  fare  seem  to  satisfy  his 
yet  undeveloped  aspirations.  The  tendency,  with 
him,  therefore,  is  not  so  much  in  the  direction  of 
emigration  as  of  return  to  his  native  haunts  and 
early  surroundings.  Not  only  is  his  attachment 
to  these  very  strong,  but  he  seems  to  have  little 
or  no  inclination  to  form  familiar  associations 
with  the  whites,  and  cannot  endure  to  live  where 
he  is  not  surrounded  by  his  own  people.  There 
are  so  very  few  of  his  race  in  the  Northern  States 
that  the  feeling  of  isolation  effectually  prevents 


The  Black  Republics.  191 

all  inclination  on  his  part  toward  emigration  in 
any  considerable  numbers. 

The  training  of  slavery,  also,  unfitted  the  colored 
man  in  a  great  degree  for  emigration.  The  first 
essential  of  the  emigrant  is  self-reliance.  The 
man  who  is  willing  to  break  away  from  his  early 
associations  and  seek  to  establish  himself  among 
strangers  must  be  conscious  of  his  own  ability  to 
obtain  suppbrt  for  himself  and  his  family  amid 
any  possible  surroundings.  This  is  the  very  thing 
that  slavery  made  it  impossible  for  the  colored 
man  to  acquire.  Unused  to  self-direction  and  the 
struggle  of  competition,  the  freedman  naturally 
shrinks  from  venturing  into  unknown  surround- 
ings and  undertaking  tasks  which  he  is  not  sure 
of  his  ability  to  perform.  In  the  labor  of  the 
plantation,  performed  according  to  the  system  of 
the  slave  regime,  he  feels  himself  absolutely  at 
home  and  safe  from  all  competition.  He  hardly 
knows  the  alphabet  of  self-protection  in  the  mat- 
ter of  wages,  labor,  and  the  ceaseless  contest  of 
labor  with  capital.  In  everything  except  the 
mere  matter  of  performing  the  accustomed  tasks 
of  the  plantation  in  the  very  manner  they  have 
been  performed  for  generations,  he  distrusts  him- 
self and  naturally  clings  to  those  surroundings  in 


192  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

which  he  feels  himself  most  competent  of  solving 
the  problem  of  self-support.  All  of  these  in- 
fluences, together  with  adverse  climatic  influences, 
have  combined  to  keep  the  negro  from  any  con- 
siderable migration  Northward,  and  to  reduce  the 
number  of  those  leaving  the  State  of  birth  even 
for  other  Southern  States. 

It  would   seem    natural  that   these   influences 
should  continue  to  increase  in  power,  and  as  the 
preponderance  of  the  colored   race  in    the   Black 
Republics  continues  to  increase,  the  tendency  of 
colored  migration  will   be    from  other   States   to 
these  strongholds  of  the  race. 
3. — A  third  influence  that  is  destined  to  tell  prodi- 
giously in  favor  of  the  colored  race  is  the  fact 
that,  in  comparison  with  the  white  race,  their 
wealth  and  material  surroundings  must  here- 
after improve  much  the  faster,  and  in  a  man- 
ner to  greatly  favor  them  in  the  numerical 
competition. 
No  statistics  are  accessible  upon  this  subject  at 
the  present  time  which  may  be  considered  in  any 
respect   fairly   indicative   of  the  progress   of  the 
race  in  this  direction.     During  the  period  since 
their  emancipation,  the  acquisitions  of  the  colored 
race  have  perhaps  been  greater  in  proportion  to 


The  Black  Republics.  193 

their  opportunities  and  what  they  possessed  at 
the  outset  than  was  ever  before  known.  Literally 
the  race  was  without  any  earthly  possessions  less 
than  twenty  years  ago.  An  average  million  of 
them  did  not  own  a  million  dollars'  worth  of  any- 
thing beyond  the  clothes  they  wore.  Since  that 
period  they  have  lived ;  and  self-support  to  a  race 
situated  as  they  were  is  a  great  achievement. 
Not  only  have  they  lived,  but  great  numbers  of 
them  have  acquired  homes,  respectable  clothing, 
and  instruments  of  agriculture  or  mechanical 
trade,  and  not  a  few  of  the  comforts  as  well  as 
the  necessities  of  life.  A  vast  aggregation  of 
such  property  makes  but  little  show  in  the  returns 
of  assessed  value.  The  homesteads  which  they 
have  secured  are  of  little  actual  worth.  The 
houses  which  they  own  are  very  unpretentious,  but 
each  one  of  them  is  a  fortress  built  along  the  line 
of  progress  which  the  race  will  hold  stubbornly 
against  all  enemies  in  the  future.  Their  personal 
apparel  may  not  be  of  a  very  costly  or  luxurious 
character,  but  its  possession  adds  to  the  self-re- 
spect and  dignity  of  the  individual  ;  and  although 
the  appraiser  may  not  consider  it  worthy  of  atten- 
tion, it  is  no  inconsiderable  element  of  the  savings 
of  the  race,  situated  as  they  have  been.     As  com- 


194  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

pared  with  that  portion  of  the  white  race  of  the 
South  nearest  to  them  in  character  and  oppor- 
tunity, the  progress  of  the  colored  race  both  in 
intelligence  and  material  accumulation  has  been 
infinitely  the  greater.  However  small  the  per- 
centage may  be  of  those  who  have  become  land- 
owners, enough  are  to  be  found  in  every  commu- 
nity to  constitute  an  example  and  inspiration 
for  the  future. 

4. — As  a  resultant  of  these  influences  there  will  soon 
begin,  if  indeed  there  has  not  already  begun,  a 
migration  of  Southern  whites  who  do  not  care 
to  remain  themselves  or  leave  their  children 
to  meet  this  competition  of  the  colored  race 
with  the  odds  thus  strongly  against  them. 
A  gentleman   from  one  of   these  States  called 
upon  the  writer  not  long  since  on   his  way  West- 
ward with   his   family.     We   had   known  him  for 
years  as   a  successful  planter,  a  man  of  moderate 
means,  of  large  and   exceptional  intelligence  for 
one  of  his  class.     We  were  curious  to  know  why 
he  was  going  to  Kansas,  and  asked  the  reason. 

"  Wal,"  was  his  reply,  "  you  see  I  have  a  big 
family  of  children, — nine  of  them  now, — and  when 
I  look  things  squarely  in  the  face  it  don't  seem  to 
me  that  the  South  is  going  to  be  just  the  pleas- 


The  Black  Republics.  195 

antest  place  for  white  folks  not  over  an'  above  rich 
to  live  in.  You  see  the  niggers  are  free  now.  I 
don't  object  to  that — never  owned  but  two,  and 
they  were  mighty  poor  ones.  I've  nothing  against 
them,  free  nor  slave,  but  they  are  getting  a  mighty 
strong  hold  all  through  that  country,  and  some- 
how I've  a  notion  my  gals  and  boys  will  have  a 
little  better  chance  out  West,  where  there  isn't 
but  one  sort  of  folks.  I  don't  suppose  I'll  ever 
find  a  place  where  I'll  make  a  better  living  or 
make  it  more  comfortably  than  I  did  on  the  old 
plantation  ;  but  we've  lived  through  one  pretty 
rough  time  that  lasted  for  four  years.  I  was  in 
the  army,  and  the  wife  and  babies  at  home.  That 
war  was  all  about  the  niggers.  There's  no  use  of 
denying  it  North  or  South.  They  were  at  the 
bottom  of  it,  though  it  wasn't  none  of  their  doings 
that  brought  it  on.  That  was  slavery,  of  course. 
That's  what  everybody  said,  and  what  everybody 
don't  know  ain't  worth  anybody's  finding  out, 
they  say.  So  now  everybody  says  there  can't  be 
no  more  trouble  just  because  there  ain't  any  more 
slavery.  As  if  that  was  the  only  thing  human 
'beings  ever  fell  out  about  and  came  to  blows 
over!  Of  course,  I  don't  know  as  there  ever  will 
be  any  more  trouble — I  hope  there  won't.     But  it 


196  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

does  seem  to  me  that  it's  going  to  be  a  hard  matter 
to  keep  out  of  difficulty  where  there's  just  about 
as  many  niggers  as  there  is  white  folks,  or  per- 
haps a  few  more,  an'  one  is  just  as  free  as  t'other. 
In  a  way,  there's  a  heap  more  bad  blood  atween 
'em  now  than  most  people  takes  any  note  on,  and 
me  and  the  old  woman  just  agreed  we'd  better 
sell  out,  seein'  as  we  had  a  good  chance,  and  take 
the  boys  and  gals  out  West  where  there  wouldn't 
be  no  likelihood  of  such  trouble,  whatever  else 
there  might  be. 

"  The  fact  is,"  he  continued,  "  I  don't  see  what's 
a-comin'  when  the  niggers  git  a  little  better  off 
and  a  little  more  education  and  are  really  able  to 
take  care  of  themselves.  They'll  outvote  the 
white  man,  outwork  him,  and  I  don't  see  why 
they  shouldn't  outgrow  and  outrule  him — unless 
they're  killed  off  or  kept  down.  I  ain't  in  favor 
of  that,  and  never  was.  If  the  law  gives  a  nigger 
the  same  sort  of  chance  I  have,  he's  a  right  to  use 
and  enjoy  it,  /say  ;  and  if  I  don't  like  it  or  can't 
stand  it,  I  can  move  away  and  let  him  take  the 
country  and  pay  for  it.  I  sold  one  of  my  planta- 
tions to  a  nigger.  He'll  pay  for  it,  too,  and  I 
don't  see  what's  to  hinder  his  being  a  rich  man  in 
a  few  years. 


The  Black  Republics.  197 

"  Wal,  all  this  seems  to  me  to  be  kind  o'  prom- 
ising trouble  in  that  region  for  years  to  come.  I 
didn't  mind  about  it  myself.  After  outliving  the 
Confederacy  one  needn't  be  troubled  about  any- 
thing. I  couldn't  feel  easy  in  my  mind,  though, 
about  leaving  the  children  there  to  grow  up  and 
face  what  may  turn  out  a  heap  worse  'n  anybody 
knows.  And  I  tell  you  what  it  is  :  I  ain't  the  only 
one  that's  getting  them  sort  of  notions  down 
there,  neither." 

We  think  this  white  emigrant  was  an  example  of 
a  class  that  will  increase  year  by  year ;  not  that 
any  Southern  white  man  fears  the  negro,  but  be- 
cause many  can  see  no  reason  for  staying  to 
struggle  for  a  supremacy  that  will  be  of  no  ma- 
terial advantage  to  them  even  if  it  is  maintained. 

To  the  white  men  of  moderate  means,  whose 
families  are  dependent  for  self-support  largely  on 
their  own  labor,  the  South,  especially  the  States 
we  have  termed  the  Black  Republics,  offer  a  pe- 
culiarly uninviting  prospect.  It  is  upon  this  class 
that  the  disadvantages  of  competition  with  the 
blacks  must  fall  most  heavily.  To  the  lower  classes 
of  whites — those  who  are  properly  termed  "  poor 
whites" — the  question  of  preponderance  in  num- 
bers is  of  far  less  importance.     In   the  conditions 


igS  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

of  life  and  surroundings  they  are  not  so  far  above 
the  colored  man  as  seriously  to  feel  his  competi- 
tion. They  have  none  of  his  ambition  ;  having 
felt  the  spur  of  no  new  opportunity,  but  repre- 
senting merely  the  dead  level  of  centuries  of  apa- 
thy and  hopelessness,  they  expect  only  a  bare  ex- 
istence for  themselves,  and  look  for  nothing  better 
for  their  children.  To  the  other  class — the  real 
better  class  of  the  South — the  self-supporters  who 
stand  between  its  lowest  classes  and  the  remnants 
of  the  old  aristocracy,  the  question  becomes  a 
very  serious  one.  The  simplest,  surest,  and  easi- 
est solution  is  that  of  migration  to  some  part  of 
the  country  where  the  competition  of  race  in  the 
field  of  labor  and  opportunity  is  not  likely  to 
occur.  This  reasoning  will  continue  very  natural- 
ly to  deplete  the  most  active  and  valuable  class 
of  the  Southern  whites — that  class  in  whom  vigor 
and  aspiration  most  naturally  and  effectively 
unite.  So  that  the  impetus  derived  from  the  fact 
of  numerical  preponderance  and  comparative  gain 
of  the  colored  race  will  act  with  an  ever-increasing 
momentum  in  acceleration  either  of  a  natural 
result  or  a  terrible  crisis. 


Divide  and  Conquer. 

"  '  I  AHERE  is  no  middle  ground  between 
■*■  citizenship  and  the  ballot,"  was  the  de- 
claration of  President  Garfield  in  his  inaugural 
address.  Whether  there  ever  was  any  such  mid- 
dle ground  or  not,  there  is  not  now,  and  no  one 
can  properly  apprehend  the  relations  of  the  races 
in  the  South  without  a  careful  consideration  of 
the  political  status  of  each. 

It  has  been  a  favorite  notion  with  almost  all 
classes  of  the  Republican  Party  that,  by  some 
hook  or  crook  of  circumstance  or  occasion,  there 


200  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

would  come  in  time  some  great  absorbing  ques- 
tion that  would  strike  the  line  of  demarcation 
squarely  through  the  white  and  black  races  of  the 
South,  setting  over  against  each  other  somewhat 
nearly  equal  proportions  of  each  race.  Almost 
every  organ  and  nearly  all  the  leading  men  of 
this  party  have  committed  themselves  at  one 
time  or  another  to  the  declaration  that  some 
question  of  overwhelming  importance  would 
ultimately  divide  the  white  and  colored  vote  of 
the  South.  This  has  been  the  favorite  idea,  the 
pet  hallucination,  of  the  party  responsible  for 
emancipation,  enfranchisement,  and  reconstruc- 
tion. For  almost  twenty  years  it  has  been  acting 
on  that  policy.  Every  year  or  two  the  country 
is  saluted  with  the  cry  that  the  whites  of  the 
South  are  separating  upon  the  issue  of  tariff, 
revenue,  or  administrative  reform.  We  have  had 
Liberals  and  Re-adjusters  and  Independents,  and 
a  thousand  other  tentative  projects  looking  to  a 
division  of  the  white  vote  and  its  amalgamation 
with  some  portion  greater  or  less  of  the  colored 
voting  strength  of  the  South.  All  of  these  plans 
have  come  to  naught,  if  we  except  the  temporary 
supremacy  of  the  Re-adjusters  in  Virginia.  Yet 
the  almost  universal  sentiment  of  the  Republican 


Divide  and  Conquer.  20  1 

Party  of  the  North  is  that,  at  some  millennial 
period  which  cannot  now  be  far  away,  Southern 
whites  and  Southern  blacks  will  see  that  their 
political  interests  are  identical,  and  that  they  will 
peaceably  divide  and  cordially  co-operate  with 
each  other  in  support  of  those  abstract  theories  of 
government  which  constitute  what  we  are  accus- 
tumed  to  term  "  party  issues." 

Neither  reason  nor  experience  justifies  this  con- 
clusion. It  is  as  reasonable  to  expect  the  division 
between  night  and  day  to  vary  from  the  fixed 
proportion  which  centuries  have  demonstrated  as 
to  expect  that,  within  any  period  which  reasona- 
ble forecast  may  consider  as  affected  by  present 
causes  or  past  events,  there  will  be  any  very  great 
political  affiliation  between  the  races.  The  Re- 
publican Party  of  the  South  at  the  outset  con- 
sisted practically  of  the  entire  colored  voting 
population  with  a  small  fringe  of  white  votes, 
amounting  in  some  States,  perhaps,  to  as  high  as 
twenty-five  or  thirty  per  cent,  and  in  others  fall- 
ing as  low  as  twelve  or  fifteen.  This  percentage 
of  white  Republican  voters  has  steadily  grown 
less  in  every  State  of  the  South.  It  is  not  worth 
while  to  consider  the  reasons  for  this  retrogres- 
sion ;  the  fact  is  unquestionable.     It  is  very  rare 


202  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

indeed  among  the  native  whites  of  the  South 
that  we  find  at  this  time  Republicans  under  the 
age  of  thirty-five,  or  in  other  words  not  old  enough 
for  their  sentiments  to  have  been  affected  by 
the  spirit  of  unionism  prevailing  before  the 
war.  Now  and  then,  of  course,  there  come  from 
the  opposition  temporary  accessions  of  Southern 
whites  who  stand  with  the  bulk  and  strength  of 
the  Republican  Party  upon  some  subordinate 
question  of  local  politics.  Such  is  the  case  at  the 
present  time  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina, 
where  certain  so-called  Liberals — revolting  Demo- 
crats— are  willing,  not  to  come  over  and  stand 
forth  as  Republicans,  not  to  identify  themselves 
in  any  sense  with  the  colored  element  or  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  colored  race  in  support 
of  their  rights  and  liberties,  but,  in  the  hope  of 
accomplishing  certain  changes  in  the  local  govern- 
ment and  administration  of  the  State,  to  vote  with 
them  for  the  occasion.  Indeed  the  history  of  the 
past  twenty  years  gives  rise  to  only  enough  of  ex- 
ception to  the  principle  which  we  have  laid  down 
to  prove  the  rule  to  be  as  we  have  stated. 

In  the  future  as  in  the  past,  therefore,  we  may 
account  it  as  an  indisputable  fact  that  the  two 
races  will,  in  the  main,  stand   opposed  to  each 


Divide  and  Conquer.  203 

other  politically  as  they  do  to-day.  Those  who 
have  read  the  preceding  pages  will  not  be  sur- 
prised at  this  conclusion.  Every  possible  influ- 
ence affecting  each  of  the  races  tends  toward 
separation  and  isolation.  The  black,  as  a  man,  is 
further  away  from  the  white  than  he  was  at  the 
close  of  the  war.  The  separateness  of  feeling, 
sentiment,  and  interest  is  greater  than  it  was  upon 
the  day  when  emancipation  took  effect.  This 
tendency  toward  a  separate  crystallization  of  in- 
terest, feeling,  and  action,  as  we  have  already 
demonstrated,  must  in  all  economic  and  social 
aspects  grow  stronger  and  more  marked  with  each 
succeeding  year.  The  relation  of  master  and  ser- 
vant is  rapidly  becoming  a  thing  of  the  past. 
The  son  of  the  slave  has  nothing  of  the  feeling  of 
privity  and  familiarity  with  the  son  of  the  mas- 
ter which  existed  between  master  and  slave. 
"  Marse  Tom's"  son  has  little  or  none  of  the  feel- 
ing for  "  the  boy  John's"  child  which  his  father 
had  for  John  himself;  and  when  another  genera- 
tion comes  on,  this  relation  of  confidence  and  de- 
pendence will  become  almost  entirely  obliterated, 
and  the  grandson  of  the  slave  will  have  no  sort  of 
confidential  or  familiar  relation  with  the  grandson 
of  the  master,  if,  indeed,  he  knows  him  at  all. 


204  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

Division  of  sentiment,  independent  religious 
organizations,  separate  schools,  no  mutual  com- 
munity of  interest,  and  the  impassable  wall  of 
color  and  caste  between  them, — all  these  influ- 
ences act  upon  every  individual  of  each  race, 
and  it  is  as  reasonable  to  expect  a  butterfly  to 
make  headway  against  a  cyclone  as  to  expect  the 
day  to  come  when  parties  at  the  South  will  pass 
the  color-line.  The  issues  which  divide  parties 
may  apparently  have  no  connection  with  the 
question  of  color,  race,  or  previous  condition, 
but  the  intellectual  development  of  the  indivi- 
duals of  the  contrasting  races  has  been  such  that 
in  the  main  each  will  agree  with  the  mass  of  his 
own  race ;  and  where  this  is  not  the  case,  the 
force  of  habit,  inherited  prejudice,  the  sentiment 
generated  by  the  co-occupancy  of  the  soil  by  un- 
assimilable  races,  are  morally  certain  to  produce 
this  result.  Politicians  may  scheme  and  theorize 
and  lie  as  much  as  they  choose  ;  the  fact  will  re- 
main, and  must  remain  as  it  has  for  the  last 
twenty  years,  a  surprise  to  those  who  first  devised 
the  policy  of  disregarding  the  influences  of  the 
past  as  an  element  in  shaping  the  future  destiny 
of  these  States. 

Upon    this  subject  we  cannot  but  regard   the 


Divide  and  Conquer.  205 

position  of  the  Democratic  Party  as  much  more 
philosophical  and  consistent  than  that  of  the  Re- 
publican. Tacitly  at  least  disapproving  the  policy 
of  emancipation,  it  actively  and  vigorously  re- 
sisted, both  in  its  national  capacity  and  by  its 
organized  branches  at  *"he  South,  by  every  lawful 
and  -frequently  by  unlawful  means,  every  step 
thereafter  which  was  taken  toward  the  elevation 
of  the  colored  race  to  political  power  or  the  exer- 
cise of  political  power  by  them  in  opposition 
to  the  will  of  the  white  race,  without  regard  to 
the  question  of  numerical  relation  between  them. 
They  have  steadily  and  consistently  avowed 
that  not  only  the  country  but  each  individual 
State  was,  and  must  be,  a  "  white  man's  govern- 
ment," to  be  controlled,  administered,  and  directed 
as  a  majority  of  that  race  might  ordain  and  direct. 
They  have  never  admitted  directly  or  indirectly 
the  right  of  the  colored  race,  no  matter  how  over- 
whelming its  majority,  to  control  the  policy  or 
fill  the  offices  of  any  State.  Practically,  as  well 
as  theoretically,  they  have  carried  into  effect  this 
principle.  Fairly  where  they  could,  and  unfairly 
where  they  must,  they  have  suppressed  the  will 
of  the  majority.  Either  by  the  show  of  force 
or  by  the  practice  of  fraud  have  they  prevented 


206  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  exercise  of  power  by  a  majority  composed 
of  colored  voters  acting  with  a  white  minority. 
This  has  been  done  throughout  the  States  of  the 
South  with  an  open,  bold,  unhesitating  affirma- 
tion of  an  inherent  right  so  to  do.  There  has 
been  no  apology  or  thought  of  apology  for  the 
resultant  effects  of  Ku-Kluxing,  bullwhacking, 
tissue-ballots,  or  any  other  form  of  fraud  or  vio- 
lence by  which  the  Southern  whites  have  asserted 
and  maintained  their  right  to  rule.  Thousands 
upon  thousands  of  them  have  regretted  the  neces- 
sity of  resorting  to  such  means.  Perhaps  a  ma- 
jority of  them  now  willingly  and  freely  admit  that 
the  atrocities  of  the  Ku-Klux  era,  the  blood  and 
terror  attending  the  victory  of  the  shotgun-pol- 
icy, all  the  inhumanity  and  cruelty  attendant 
upon  the  suppression  of  colored  majorities  in 
States  where  they  had  a  preponderance  of  num- 
bers, and  the  alliance  with  a  sufficient  proportion 
of  whites  to  give  them  power,  were  sad  and 
deplorable  things.  They  do  not  pretend  to  claim 
any  right  to  kill,  mutilate,  whip,  or  in  any  way  to 
injure  the  colored  man  in  person  or  estate.  They 
only  claim  the  right,  as  it  seems  to  them  in  self- 
defense,  to  prevent  him  from  exercising  a  co- 
ordinate political  power.     In  the  assertion  of  this 


Divide  and  Conquer.  207 

inherent  and  inalienable  right  of  the  white  man 
to  rule  not  only  himself  but  those  associated 
with  him,  without  regard  to  numerical  relations 
between  them,  the  Democratic  Party  has  been 
consistent  and  philosophical.  Their  view  of 
the  present  situation  admits  of  but  three  hypo- 
theses. First,  the  colored  race  must  remain  per- 
manently subordinated  to  the  whites  in  a  political 
sense,  no  matter  how  great  the  disproportion  of 
numbers  between  them  may  be.  Second,  the 
colored  race  must  be  disfranchised  or  removed. 
Third,  the  colored  man  must  acquire  such  intel- 
ligence and  wealth  that  the  Southern  white  man 
may  be  willing  to  accord  to  him  a  sort  of  qualified 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  and  the  privilege 
of  a  limited  participation  in  public  affairs. 

Upon  this  point  we  quote  once  more  the  words 
of  Prof.  Gilliam,  calling  attention  again  to  the  fact 
that  his  outlook  and  inclination  are  radically 
different  from  our  own.      He  says  : 

"  The  blacks  will  always,  in  the  main,  vote  to- 
gether. Why  they  are  all  Republicans  now 
is  readily  seen.  But  should  present  political 
parties  break  up  and  others  be  formed,  the 
blacks  would  still  naturally  go  as  a  body.  The 
circumstances  under  which  they  live,  compelling 


2o8  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

them  to  stand  together  socially,  will  also  compel 
them  to  stand  together  politically.  Confined  by 
a  social  barrier,  they  may  be  expected  to  develop 
abnormally  the  natural  race-instinct  and,  under  a 
powerful  esprit  de  corps,  to  cast  a  solid  ballot." 

What  he  affirms  of  the  colored  race  is  even 
more  literally  true  of  the  Southern  whites,  in- 
asmuch as  the  pride  of  domination  is  a  more  ex- 
clusive and  unreasoning  impulse  than  the  sense  of 
injustice  and  wrong.  The  instinct  of  race  is  a 
very  potent  factor  in  the  life  of  the  colored  man 
of  the  South,  but  it  is  as  nothing  when  com- 
pared to  the  pride  of  race  and  caste  in  the  breasts 
of  the  Southern  whites. 

Whether  it  is  better  to  allow  the  influences 
we  have  noted  to  continue  in  active  operation 
until  a  crisis  arrives,  or  attempt  to  secure  their 
modification  and  peaceful  harmonization  by  the 
exercise  of  wise  and  beneficent  influences,  is  a 
question  that  every  good  citizen  will  find  con- 
fronting him  with  perhaps  unpleasant  urgency, 
until  the  problem  has  received  a  solution  of  some 
sort  at  the  hands  of  the  American  people.  There 
are  two  classes,  widely  different  in  sentiment, 
character,  and  antecedent  influences,  who  queerly 
enough  agree  in  declaring  that  neither  policy  nor 


Divide  and  Conquer.  209 

duty  requires  anything-  at  all  to  be  done.  These 
classes  are: 

First.  The  Northern  man  who  has  made  up  his 
mind  that  the  negro  must  and  shall  not  con- 
stitute an  element  in  the  national  politics  of  the 
future;  who  believes  that  emancipation  and 
enfranchisement  were  the  end  of  duty,  of  right, 
and  of  power ;  who  is  convinced  that  all  we 
have  to  do  to  cure  a  political  evil  is  to  pretend 
absolute  ignorance  of  its  existence.  This  class  of 
good  Americans  cry  out,  as  soon  as  the  subject  is 
broached :  "  Oh,  let  it  alone.  Let  the  negro 
take  care  of  himself.  What  difference  does  it 
make  to  us  how  fast  he  increases,  how  strong  he 
becomes  numerically,  how  much  the  white  race 
of  the  South  suffer  from  his  competition,  or  what 
of  evil  may  result  from  this  juxtaposition  of 
hostile   forces?" 

Second.  The  average  Southern  man  replies 
even  more  glibly  and  promptly  :  "  Pshaw  !  What 
difference  does  it  make!  Just  let  the  niggers 
alone.  We  will  take  care  of  them.  It  matters 
not  a  whit  if  there  is  only  one  white  man  to  a 
thousand  negroes.  This  is  a  white  man's  coun- 
try, and  the  white  man  will  rule  it.  We  will  look 
out  for  that !" 


2io  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

There  is  something  absolutely  fascinating  in 
the  self-reliance  and  self-assertion  of  the  Southern 
white  man.  So  far  as  he  himself  is  concerned, 
or  his  capacity  to  do  or  achieve,  he  seems  never 
to  be  afflicted  with  a  doubt.  That  the  whites 
should  be  able,  no  matter  how  striking  their 
minority  may  be,  to  control  the  colored  race, 
seems  to  him  as  natural  and  reasonable  as  that 
one  of  his  number  should  be  able  to  whip  a 
dozen  Yankees.  It  is  a  peculiar  fact,  too,  that 
no  sort  of  failure  regarding  this  estimate  of  his 
own  prowess,  sagacity,  or  infallibility  seems  to 
create  any  sort  of  doubt  in  his  mind.  The  fact 
that  almost  every  idea  upon  which  was  based  the 
hope  of  victory  in  the  struggle  with  the  North 
proved  false  has  hardly  served  in  the  least  de- 
gree to  weaken  the  Southern  conviction  of  their 
superior  prowess,  patriotism,  and  devotion.  They 
seem  irresistibly  prone  to  overestimate  them- 
selves and  underestimate  those  with  whom  they 
are  contrasted. 

In  nothing  is  this  tendency  more  clearly  shown 
than  in  their  estimate  of  the  colored  man. 
While  he  was  a  slave  they  boasted  of  their  know- 
ledge of  his  temperament,  capacity,  and  ability. 
They  declared  it  an  axiomatic  truth  that  he  was 


Divide  and  Conquer.  2 1 1 

incapable  of  self-protection,  self-direction,  and 
self-support  They  underestimated  his  value  as 
a  self-directing  laborer,  declaring  that  he  lacked 
shrewdness,  fortitude,  and  capacity.  It  was  the 
universal  belief  that  if  cast  upon  its  own  resources 
the  race  must  inevitably  yield  to  swift  and  s*ure 
decay.  They  accounted  the  negro  incapable  of 
civilization  or  development.  They  ridiculed  the 
notion  that  he  might  be  made  an  efficient  soldier. 
They  laughed  at  the  idea  that  he  would  ever 
successfully  meet  the  onset  of  Southern  veterans. 
That  the  time  could  ever  come  when  negro 
soldiers  should  charge  with  unloaded  guns,  rely- 
ing upon  the  bayonet  alone,  and  put  to  flight 
any  force  of  Southern  soldiers,  never  even 
entered  their  imaginations.  The  time  came  when 
all  these  impossibilities  became  accomplished 
facts.  Yet  the  Southern  white  man  did  not 
change  his  belief  nor  admit  the  element  of  doubt 
in  regard  to  the  theories  which  he  had  so  long 
maintained.  He  laughs  to  scorn  to-day  any  one 
who  dares  to  intimate  that  he  does  not  know  all 
about  the  negro.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  very 
relation  which  they  sustained  to  each  other  made 
it  impossible  that  the  master  should  have  any  real 
knowledge  of  the  slave's  thought.     Concealment 


212  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

was  the  most  essential  element  of  the  slave's  life. 
It  was  his  sole  weapon  of  offense  and  defense 
against  the  master  and  the  master-race.  By  long 
cultivation,  secretiveness  became  one  of  his  most 
pronounced  characteristics.  Behind  his  black 
face*  servile  manner,  and  mirthful  proclivity  the 
slave  hid  the  man.  Concealment  came  to  be 
almost  a  second  nature  to  him  through  the  train- 
ing of  slavery.  Even  while  the  servile  relation 
remained  in  force,  the  concerted  plans  of  the 
negroes  for  escape  and  for  the  assistance  of  fugi- 
tives on  the  way  to  liberty  showed  a  remarkable 
capacity  for  this  very  style  of  co-operation. 

The  statute-books  of  the  older  Slave  States  bear 
eloquent  testimony  to  this  peculiar  trait  of  the 
slave.  It  is  no  small  tribute  to  his  capacity  for 
combined  action  that  the  whole  South  in  the  old 
slave  days  was  nothing  less  than  a  carefully 
guarded  military  camp.  When  one  considers  the 
laws  that  were  thought  necessary  to  prevent  es- 
capes and  secure  the  master-race  against  servile 
insurrection,  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that  the 
whites  of  the  South  should  regard  with  such  un- 
mitigated contempt  the  freedman's  capacity  for 
intelligent,  secret,  and  concerted  co-operation 
with  his  fellows.     As  a  slave,  no  laws  were  severe 


Divide  and  Conquer,  213 

enough  to  restrain  his  instinct  for  liberty.  It  be- 
came necessary  to  limit  and  restrict  his  action  with 
the  most  stringent  regulations.  The  master  dare 
not  allow  him  to  meet  his  fellows  even  for  public 
worship  unless  a  white  man  were  present  to  spy 
upon  their  action.  The  whole  country  from  the 
Ohio  to  the  Gulf  was  covered  by  a  system  of  pa- 
trols as  thorough  and  complete  as  the  chain  of 
sentinels  about  a  Roman  camp.  The  militia  offi- 
cers were  always  upon  active  duty  and  might  be 
required  by  the  magistrates  at  any  moment  to 
increase  the  force  of  patrol  guards  at  any  point. 
The  slave  was  not  allowed  to  travel  upon  the 
highway  without  a  written  pass  from  the  master, 
and  was  kept  in  ignorance  lest  he  should  forge 
this  imperial  rescript  which  might  open  the  way 
to  freedom.  The  most  terrible  penalties  were 
imposed  upon  any  who  should  attempt  to  escape 
or  should  assist  another  in  the  slightest  manner  to 
acquire  liberty.  Even  with  all  these  disabilities 
imposed  upon  them,  the  negroes  not  unfrequently 
performed  miracles  of  sagacious  subterfuge  in  aid- 
ing each  other  to  escape  from  bondage. 

During  the  war  no  Federal  soldier  escaping 
from  the  enemy's  lines  ever  found  a  slave  so  dull 
that  he  could  not  command  the  services  of  scores 


214  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

of  others  to  assist  his  friend  and  deliverer.  The 
history  of  their  achievements  in  this  direction 
alone,  as  well  as  their  marvelous  power  of  obtain- 
ing and  transmitting  intelligence  in  regard  to  mil- 
itary operations,  should  have  taught  the  white 
race  not  to  despise  their  capacity  for  secret,  effec- 
tive, and  concerted  action.  Even  this  lesson,  how- 
ever, was  lost  upon  the  dominant  race,  and  they 
regarded  the  resistance  made  to  the  Ku-Klux  revo- 
lution as  due  entirely  to  the  white  leaders  of  the 
Republican  Party.  There  could  be  no  greater 
mistake.  In  everything  but  the  power  to  read 
and  write,  the  colored  people  showed  themselves 
in  this  struggle  fully  the  equals  of  their  white 
allies.  Indeed,  but  for  the  remonstrances  of  their 
recognized  leaders  they  would  have  carried  into 
effect  plans  of  retributive  justice  which  would 
have  made  those  years  memorable  in  all  history 
for  the  terrible  vengeance  which  an  oppressed  race 
executed  upon  their  persecutors.  They  were 
counseled  and  implored  to  wait,  to  suffer  pa- 
tiently and  trust  the  Government  that  had  freed 
them,  to  secure  them  in  their  rights  and  mete  out 
justice  to  their  oppressors.  In  this  Government 
and  in  these  representations  they  had  the  most 
implicit   confidence.      When    they   found    them- 


Divide  and  Conquer.  215 

selves  abandoned,  and  discovered  that  the  Nation 
whose  justice  they  trusted  as   implicitly  as  they 
had  been  wont  to  rely  upon  Jehovah  for  ultimate 
deliverance    from    bondage  —  when    they    found 
that  this  Government  had  deliberately  deserted 
them  and  left  them  hopeless    in    the    hands  of 
those  who  were  the  natural  and  avowed  enemies 
of  their  race  in  everything  pertaining  to  its  liberty 
and   the  exercise  of    the  rights    conferred    upon 
them  as  citizens — when  they  knew  this  they  nat- 
urally lost  heart.     There  was  a  lull  in  the  great 
struggle.     For  some  years  there  was  hardly  any 
indication  of  an  inclination  on  their  part  to  act 
for  themselves  in  political  affairs.     The  Southern 
whites    counted    the     matter    as    ended.      They 
thought  the    colored  race   was   politically   subju- 
gated.    Yet  they  did  not  neglect  to  check  with  a 
strong  and  bloody  hand  any  incipient  signs  of    a 
renewed   interest  in  public  affairs  on  their  part. 
This  made  such  affairs  as  the  Danville  riot  a  ne- 
cessity— not  to  punish  any  evil  tendency  on  the 
part  of  the'blacks,  but  to  admonish  the  rice  of  the 
danger  attending  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  ex- 
ercise  political  power   at    their    own    discretion. 
The  apparent  success  of  these  measures  has  con- 
tinued the  self-deception  of  the    Southern  white 


216  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

in  regard  to  the  negro's  capacity  for  collective  ac- 
tion in  assertion  of  his  own  rights.  The  South 
has  no  idea  that  the  negro  will  ever  assert  himself 
as  a  political  factor.  The  only  thing  they  appre- 
hend is  that  some  white  leader  may  arise  who  may 
be  brave  and  strong  enough  to  unite  them  blindly 
and  unquestioningly  under  his  leadership.  Not- 
withstanding the  fact,  therefore,  that  the  freedom 
they  prophesied  would  bring  decay  is  demon- 
strated to  have  brought,  instead,  increased  fecund- 
ity, the  Southern  man,  as  a  rule,  not  only  regards 
the  colored  man  as  an  inferior,  but  as  so  inferior 
in  all  the  elements  of  effective  manhood  as  to  be 
politically  unworthy  of  any  consideration  other 
than  contempt. 

Because  of  this  misconception  of  the  real  char- 
acter of  the  negro  as  modified  and  developed  by 
the  harsh  tuition  of  slavery  and,  in  some  sense, 
the  still  harsher  tutelage  of  the  Reconstruction 
era,  there  are  two  classes  who  fail,  in  about  equal 
degrees,  to  appreciate  his  present  situation  or  the 
possibilities  and  probabilities  of  his  future. 

One  of  these  classes  is  the  Southern  white 
who  bases  his  estimate  of  the  negro,  as  a  man, 
solely  upon  his  conception  of  him  as  a  slave. 
This    estimate    is   as    naturally  defective    in    its 


Divide  and  Conquer,  217 

economic  and  personal  as  in  its  political  aspects. 
The  slave  is  never  appreciated  by  the  master. 
Pharaoh  unquestionably  despised  Moses  and  his 
people,  and  had  no  idea  that  they  were  capable  of 
individual  autonomy  or  collective  independence. 
Yet  they  became  the  most  remarkable  people  in 
distinctive  power,  and  in  the  inherited  capacity 
of  waiting  and  watching  for  remote  opportunity, 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  It  was  a  general 
belief  among  the  white  people  of  the  South  that 
if  the  slaves  were  even  for  a  day  thrown  upon 
their  own  resources  they  must  inevitably  perish. 
Their  willingness  to  labor,  their  vigor  and  fortitude, 
were  all  underestimated.  They  were  considered 
incapable  of  civilization  and  development.  The 
Southern  white  regards  the  freedman  simply  as 
the  product  of  slavery.  He  looks  upon  his  out- 
ward circumstances  and  material  surroundings  as 
the  sole  indications  of  progress  or  the  want  of  it. 
He  does  not  think  of  measuring  the  race  with 
any  other  free  people.  He  does  not  once  dream 
of  regarding  the  foundations  of  independence  and 
self-support  which  are  constantly  multiplying 
about  the  colored  people  as  of  any  peculiar  sig- 
nificance. The  fact  that  a  once  favorite  servant  is 
doing  well  pleases  him.     The  knowledge  that  one 


2i8  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

of  bad  and  unworthy  character  has  come  to  grief 
only  strengthens  his  conviction  that  freedom  can- 
not make  a  bad  negro  good.  He  measures  all 
that  exists  by  the  standard  of  comparison  drawn 
from  a  previous  and  altogether  dissimilar  state  of 
existence.  He  thinks  of  the  colored  people  as  a 
race  to  be  kindly  treated  ;  to  be  given  every  op- 
portunity to  obtain  comfortable  surroundings;  to 
be  encouraged  to  make  for  themselves  a  good 
livelihood.  But  so  far  from  considering  any  of  the 
elements  of  life  with  regard  to  their  bearing 
upon  the  character  and  development  of  the  negro 
as  a  citizen  or  as  an  independent  being  of  co-eqnal 
power  and  like  dominant  energy  with  himself — 
so  far  from  doing  this,  the  Southern  white  man 
finds  it  impossible  even  to  entertain  the  idea  or 
comprehend  in  any  degree  its  significance.  To 
him  the  negro  is  simply  a  "  nigger" — not  using 
the  word  as  a  term  of  opprobrium,  but  simply 
to  mark  the  gulf  of  inequality  and  inferiority 
which  he  believes  to  exist  between  the    races. 

The  material  acquisitions  of  the  colored  man 
during  the  period  of  liberty  are  to  the  white 
significant  merely  of  a  capacity  for  self-support. 
All  are  generally  willing  to  admit  now,  what 
hardly  one  in  a  hundred  would  have  admitted  at 


Divide  and  Conquer.  219 

the  close  of  the  war — that  the  negro  is  capable 
of  supporting  himself  by  his  o\vn  labor;  that  he 
has  certain  faculties,  such  as  good-nature,  mirth- 
fulness,  endurance,  adaptability  to   the  climate  in 
which   he  lives,  and  ability  for  performing  labor 
with    a    moderate    supply  of    creature    comforts, 
which  perhaps  no  other  race  can  equal.      As    a 
laborer,  therefore,  as  an  inferior,  as  a  "  nigger" 
the  white  man  of  the  South  regards  his  progress 
and  advancement  in  intelligence  and  in  material 
prosperity  with  a  sort  of  kind  complacency.    Just 
so    soon,  however,   as    this   prosperity  comes    to 
mean  aspiration  for  power  and  recognition  as  an 
element  in  the  government   of  State  or  Nation, 
that  very  instant    the  white    man  of  the    South 
becomes  a  hostile  influence.     He  cannot    appre- 
ciate   or   understand    the    desire    of   the  colored 
man    to    be    anything  more    than    a    prosperous, 
well-fed    laborer.     He    cannot    believe    that    any 
duty  rests  upon  him  to  promote   the  well-being 
of    the    colored    man,    beyond    wishing    that    he 
may  be   well  fed,  well  clothed,  well  cared  for  in 
sickness   and    in  health,  and  offered  unrestricted 
opportunity  for   achieving   his    eternal  salvation. 
For   the  religious  element  of  the  negro's  nature 
the  Southern  white  man,  as  a  rule,  has  the  most 


220  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

profound  respect.  It  is  true  that  many  of  their 
school-houses  and  churches  were  burned  during 
the  Ku-Klux  revolution.  It  is  true  that  many 
colored  ministers  of  the  Gospel  have  been  sub- 
jected to  indignity  and  outrage  of  various  kinds  ; 
but  it  was  not  because  of  their  ministry.  It  was 
not,  as  a  rule,  perhaps  even  from  any  lack  of  re- 
spect for  the  religious  feelings  and  aspirations  of 
the  colored  man.  It  was  because  of  a  feeling,  a 
suspicion,  a  fear,  that  these  religious  teachers 
might  become  also  political  leaders  who  should 
teach  a  gospel  not  merely  of  salvation  in  the 
world  to  come,  but  of  manhood  and  co-equal 
rights  upon  the  earth. 

The  other  class  who  fail  to  estimate  the  negro 
correctly  is  composed  of  those  peculiarly  positive, 
undoubting  Northern  men  who  made  up  their 
minds,  years  ago,  that  all  the  negro  needed  to 
make  him  the  equal,  or  a  little  more,  than  the 
equal,  of  the  whites  by  whom  he  was  surrounded, 
was  liberty  and  the  ballot.  These  two  boons 
having  been  bestowed  upon  him,  the  positive 
Northern  theorist  expects  to  see  him  at  once 
develop  all  the  virtues  of  the  highest  civilization, 
with  none  of  its  attendant  vices  or  weaknesses. 
After  half  a  generation  of  liberty  this  dogmatic 


Divide  and  Conquer.  221 

well-wisher  of  the  blacks,  whom  he  regards  as  his 
own  individual  protege's,  comes  among  them  and 
is  disgusted  at  what  he  finds.  To  this  scornful 
tourist-observer  who  comes  with  a  fixed  and  clear 
idea  of  what  he  is  to  find  and  discovers  some- 
thing very  unlike  his  expectation,  the  negro 
seems  only  a  strange  compound  of  gnome  and 
satyr.  His  irresistible  inclination  to  mirth,  his 
seeming  contentedness  with  the  present,  his  in- 
vulnerability to  all  assaults  of  misfortune,  pass 
as  nothing  in  the  eyes  of  the  censorious  Northern 
observer,  who  expects  the  recent  slave,  because  he 
has  become  a  freedman,  by  some  sort  of  miracle 
to  have  become  also  suddenly  an  exemplification 
of  all  the  virtues  and  capabilities  which  it  has 
taken  so  many  ages  to  develop  among  the  whites. 
Such  an  observer  is  naturally  disappointed  to  find 
that  the  colored  man  of  the  South  goes  bare- 
footed ;  lives  in  a  hovel  that  it  would  be  an 
affront  to  offer  to  a  Chester  pig  at  the  North  ;  is 
apparently  happy  and  contented, — doing  his  day's 
work,  getting  his  day's  pay  (if  he  does  get  it !), — 
and  going  on  month  after  month,  and  year  after 
year,  in  much  the  same  path ;  gaining  a  little 
here  and  there  ;  gathering  something  of  strength 
and  dignity,  and  indulging  in  some  quaint  mani- 


222  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

festations  of  the  liberty  which  came  to  him  as  if 
by  miracle  and  which  he  seems  so  little  to  appre- 
ciate. The  Northern  tourist-observer  who  goes 
through  the  South  with  the  boastful  declaration 
that  he  means  to  see  with  his  own  eyes,  not  find- 
ing what  he  had  predetermined  must  exist,  is 
naturally  disgusted  with  all  that  he  sees  and  hears 
of  the  negro  race.  He  comes  to  regard  the  col- 
ored man  as  the  great  ethnological  clown — the 
careless  mirth-maker  and  mirth-finder  of  the 
human  race — knowing  nothing  of  the  privileges 
or  rights  of  the  free  man,  and  caring  less ;  submit- 
ting to  wrong  and  extortion  ;  regardless  of  the 
rights  of  property  and  heedless  of  the  obligations 
of  contract ;  in  short,  having  none  of  those  ele- 
ments of  civilization  which  centuries  of  mercan- 
tile training  have  developed  so  highly  among  our 
Northern  population.  For  the  negro's  weakness, 
ineptness,  and  ignorance  he  has  only  ridicule  and 
contempt.  For  that  careless  mirthfulness  which 
is  the  shield  against  despair  he  has  only  a 
sneer.  For  the  little  log-cabin  homestead,  with 
its  puncheon  floor,  its  door  hung  on  wooden 
hinges,  its  long  split  shingles  held  in  place  by 
superincumbent  poles,  and  its  truck-patch  in- 
closed by  split  palings  woven  in  and  out  upon  a 


Divide  and  Conquer.  223 

framework  of  poles — for  this  castle  of  the  freed- 
man,  not  overcleanly,  affording  little  shelter 
from  the  weather,  and  sometimes  queerly  in- 
habited, the  Northern  observer  has  no  respect. 
To  him  it  is  a  mere  overcrowded  den.  The  fact 
that  the  pig  runs  in  at  one  door  and  the  chickens 
out  at  the  other  proves  positively  to  his  mind 
that  civilization  can  never  enter  there.  All  the 
neatness,  promptness,  and  aggressive  indepen- 
dence of  his  own  Northern  life  are  wanting  in  the 
freedman.  He  sees  nothing  to  hope  for  in  the 
fact  that  a  man  thrown  naked  upon  the  world,  in 
fifteen  years  has  secured  a  shelter  for  himself  and 
family.  He  sees  the  ebon  pickaninnies  running 
about  with  but  one  garment.  He  finds  two  or 
three  generations  sleeping  in  a  house  with  one 
room,  and  is  certain  that  only  degradation  and 
failure  wait  upon  the  future  of  the  African  race. 
Even  the  Southern  white  man  is  more  charitable 
and  hopeful  for  the  negro  than  this  wise  Northern 
visitant  who  catches  merely  a  glimpse  of  the 
colored  man's  life,  notes  its  defects  with  unfailing 
accuracy,  is  unable  to  see  that  it  has  any  excel- 
lences, and,  because  he  is  unable  to  comprehend 
its  relations  with  the  past,  is  also  incapable  of 
perceiving  the  possibilities  of  its  future. 


224  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

In  view  of  all  the  facts  that  have  been  pre- 
sented, it  must  be  evident  even  to  a  child's  com- 
prehension that  the  political  contest  between  the 
white  and  colored  races  at  the  South,  instead  of 
being  a  thing  of  the  past  has  only  just  begun. 
The  negro,  instead  of  having  been  forever  ban- 
ished from  national  politics,  has  only  just  entered 
there  as  a  potential  and  important  factor.  It 
matters  not  how  complete  may  be  his  present 
exclusion  from  participation  in  public  affairs,  the 
time  must  come  when  the  mere  preponderance  of 
numbers  must  overpower  the  prestige  of  superior 
intelligence,  no  matter  how  marked  it  may  be. 
In  five  of  the  States  this  time  cannot  long  be  de- 
ferred. In  three  more  it  is  almost  certain  to  come 
within  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

Shall  these  forces  be  harmonized  or  continue  in 
antagonism?  Shall  the  outcome  be  peaceful  or 
violent?  What  will  our  myriad-minded  Casar 
decree  ? 


A   New   Complication. 

"\/l/E  have  dwelt  upon  the  question  of  the 
•  *        mutual    relations    of   the    races    at    the 

South  at  considerable  length,  for  several  reasons : 

I. — Because  they  are  so  little  understood  by  the 
majority  even  of  our  most  intelligent  peo- 
ple. 

2. — Because  of  the  almost  universal  prevalence  of 
certain  ideas  in  regard  to  them  on  which 
have  been  based  erroneous  conclusions. 

3. — Because  a  full  apprehension  of  these  facts  is 
essential  to  produce  that  first  condition -of 


226  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ameliorative  action — a  conviction  in  the 
public  mind  of  the  pressing  and  instant 
necessity  that  something  must  be  done. 
We  come  now  to  consider  an  element  of 
Southern  life  the  study  of  which  is  at  once  de- 
pressing and  hopeful — depressing  in  that  it 
greatly  complicates  the  dangers  likely  to  arise  out 
of  the  relations  we  have  been  considering,  and 
hopeful  because  it  offers  the  only  reasonable  and 
peaceful  solution  of  the  momentous  problem 
which  has  yet  been  devised.  This  element  is  the 
prevailing  illiteracy  of  the  Southern  people  of 
both  races — the  startling  fact  that  these  masses 
of  population,  which  nature  and  a  wonderful 
sequence  of  events  have  arrayed  against  each 
other  in  seemingly  unavoidable  antagonism,  are 
likely  to  be  precipitated  into  a  conflict  which  for 
savage  horror  would  have  no  parallel  in  history, 
by  the  folly  and  inconsiderate  prejudice  of  vast 
bodies  of  the  ignorant  and  reckless  of  both  races. 
The  following  tables  show  the  essential  facts  in 
regard  to  this  matter. 

By  an  examination  of  these  tables  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  following  astounding  summary  is 
only  a  simple  statement  of  facts  now  four  years 
old: 


A  New  Complication.  227 

The  North  has  thirty  millions  of  population  and  a 

million  a?id  a  half  of  illiterates. 
The  South  has  eighteen  millions  of  population  and 

five  millions  of  illiterates. 
Five  and  three-tenths  per  cent  of  the  people  of  the 

North  cannot  read  and  write. 
Thirty-six  and  a  half  per  cent  of  the  people  of  the 

South  cannot  read  and  write. 
Five  and  two-te?iths  per  cent  of  the  white  people  of 

the  North  cannot  read  and  write. 
Nineteen  per  cent  of  the  white  people  of  the  South 

cannot  read  and  write. 

Twenty-five  per  cent  of  the  colored  population  of 
the  North  and  seventy-three  per  cent  of  the  colored 
population  of  the  South  cannot  read  and  write. 

In  the  Black  Belt  forty-eight  and  one-half  per 
cent  of  the  entire  'population  cannot  read  and  write, 
twenty- five  per  cent  of  the  native  whites  and  sev- 

TABLE    BB. 
General  Illiteracy  of  North  and  South. 


Total 

Population, 
1880. 

Illiterates.  Ten 
Years  Old 

and  Upward. 

The  North 

The  South 

31.938,459 
18,217,324 

1,442,064 
4,808,528 

Total 50,i55i7S3  6,250,592 


228 


An  Appeal  to  Caesar. 


enty-eiglit  per  cent  of  the  colored  population  being 
illiterates. 

In  the  same  region  seventeen  per  cent  of  the  white 
adults  and  seventy-eight  and  one-half  per  cent  of 
the  colored  adults  cannot  read  and  write.     That 


TABLE    CC. 

Illiterates,   Ten   Years  Old  and  Upward,  in  the  Northern   States 
and  Territories.      Census  of  1880. 


Total 

Per 

Per 

Na- 

Per 

For-   Per 

1 
Col-  (Per 

States. 

Illit- 
erates. 

ct. 

Whites. 

ct. 

tive 
Whit's 

ct. 

eign.     ct. 

ored.  ;  ct. 















: 

Cal 

53-43o 

7-8 

26,090 

4.4 

7,660 

2.0 

18,430    8.6 

27,340129.8 

Colorado. 

10.474 

6.6 

9,906 

6.4 

8,373 

7-1 

i,533    4-o 

568  20.5 

Conn    . . . 

28.424 

5-7 

26,763 

5-5 

3.728 

1 .0 

23,035  18.3 

1,661,  17. 4 

Illinois... 

145.397 

6.4 

132.426 

5-9 

88. 510 

5-3 

43,907    7-7 

12,971  37  2 

Indiana. . 

110,761 

7-5 

100,398 

7.0 

87,786 

6.8 

12,612    8  9 

10,363:35-6 

Iowa 

46,609 

3-9 

44,337 

3-8 

23,660 

2.6 

20,677    8.1 

2,272  30.0 

Kansas  . . 

39,476 

5-6 

24,888 

3-7 

17,825 

3-i 

7,063    6.7 

14,588  46.8 

Maine 

22,170 

4-3 

21.758 

4.2 

8.775 

1.9 

12,98323.7 

412  24.8 

Mass 

02.980 

6-5 

90,658 

6.4 

6,933 

0.7 

83,725  19.6 

2,322  15. 1 

Michigan 

63,7=3 

5-2 

58,932 

4.8 

19,981 

2-3 

38,951  10.7 

4.791  28.5 

Minn 

34-540 

6.2 

33,5o6 

6.0 

0,671 

1.9 

27,835  IO-9 

1,040  37.2 

Nebraska 

n.528 

3.6 

10,926 

3-5 

5,102 

2-3 

5,824    6.4 

602  30.7 

Nevada. . 

4,ocg 

8.0 

i,9i5 

4-5 

240 

I .  I 

1,675    8.4 

2,154  26.7 

N.  H 

14.302 

5-o 

14,208 

5.0 

2,710 

I .  I 

11,498  26.9 

94  15-8 

N.  Jersey 

53-249 

6.2 

44,049 

5-3 

20,093 

3.2 

23,956  ". 1 

9,200  30.5 

N.  York.. 

219,600 

5-5 

208,175 

5-3 

59,5i6 

2.2 

148,659  12.5 

11,425  21   2 

Ohio 

131.847 

5-5 

115,491 

4.9 

83,183 

4-3 

32,308    8.4 

16,356  27.3 

Oregon. . 

7.423 

5-7 

4,343 

3-6 

3,433 

3-5 

910    4.4 

3,080' 27.  S 

Penna 

228.014 

7-i 

209,981 

6.7 

123,206 

4.8 

86,775i5-i 

18.03327. 1 

Rhode  I.. 

24,793 

11. 2 

23.544 

10.9 

4,261 

2.0 

19,283  27.3 

1.249  23.6 

Vermont. 

15.837 

6.0 

1 5,68 1 

6.0 

5,354 

2.4       10,327  20.6 

156  19. 3 

Wis 

55.558 

5-8 

54.233 

5-6 

11,494 

0.2,     42,739   I0.8 

1,325  3i-o 

Total.. 

1,414,210 

5-3 

1,272,208 

5-2 

597,403 

3-2   674.705    12.2 

1 
142,002  25.1 

Territo- 

ries. 

Arizona. . 

5,S42 

17.7 

4.824 

16.8 

1.225 

8.1 

3,599 

26.8 

1,018  23.7 

Dakota  .. 

4,821 

4.8 

4.157 

4.2 

933 

1.8 

3,224 

6.8 

664:44.2 

Idaho 

1.778 

7-i 

784 

3.6 

443 

3-o 

34i 

51 

994  28.2 

Montana. 

1.707 

5-3 

631 

22 

272 

1.4 

359 

3-8 

1,076  35  8 

Utah.   ... 

8. 826 

9.1 

8,137 

8  5 

3-183 

5-9 

4,954 

11. 8 

689  52.3 

Wash   ... 

.    .    3-889 

7.0 

1,429 

2.0 

895 

2.4 

534 

4-5 

2.460  38.1 









— 









Total.. 

26,863 

8.5 

19.962 

6.3 

6.951 

3-5 

13. on 

9.8 

6,901137.0 

A  New  Complication. 


229 


is  to  say,  of  the  nineteen  hundred  thousanu  male 
adult  voters,  white  and  black,  in  these  eight  States, 
eight  hundred  and  sixty-seven  thousand,  or  forty- 
five -per  cent,  are  unable  to  read  the  names  upon  their 
ballots. 

We  do  not  propose  to  discuss  these  facts  at  any 
length.  The  man  who  does  not  realize  their  ter- 
rible significance  at  a  glance  will  never  compre- 
hend their  import.  Amplification  would  be  wasted 
on  him. 


TABLE    DD. 

Illiterates,   Ten    Years  Old  and   Upward,  in  the   Southern  States 
and   Territories.      Census  of  1S80. 


Total 
Illit- 
erates. 

Per 
ct. 

Whites. 

Per 
ct. 

Native 
Whites. 

Per 

ct. 

For-   Per 
eign.l  ct.  | 

Colored. 

Per 
ct. 

Ala.. 

433-447 

50.  Q 

"TxT^ 

24-7 

111,040  25.0 

727'   7-7 

321.680 

80.6 

Ark.. 

202,015 

38.O 

98.542 

25.0 

97-99°  25  ■  5 

55=     5-6 

103,473 

75.0 

Del. 

19.414 

17-5 

8.346 

9.1 

6,630    8.1 

1,716  18.5 

11,068 

57-5 

Ha  . . 

80,183 

43  4 

19,763 

19.9 

19.024  20.7 

739  10. 0 

60,420 

70.7 

Ga. . . 

520,416 

49-9 

128,934 

22  9 

128.362  23  2 

572     5-D 

391,482 

81.6 

Ky... 

34S.392  29.9 

214,497 

22  0 

208,796  22.8 

5.701     9.7 

I33-895 

70.4 

La... 

313.380  49.1 

58,951 

18.4 

53,261119.8 

5,690    IO.  G 

259,429 

79.1 

Md  . 

134.488  19-3 

44-3l6 

8.1 

36,027!   7.8 

8.23o  10.2 

90.172 

59-0 

Mi.s.. 

373.201  49-5 

53,448 

16.3 

52.910. 16. 6 

538 

6.0 

3*9,753 

75-2 

Mo. 

208,754  13.4 

152.510 

10.5 

137, 949]  1 1. 1 

14,501 

7.0 

56,244  53.9 

N.  C. 

463,975  48.3 

I92,032 

3T-5 

191,91331.7 

119 

3  •  3 

27I-943  77  4 

S.  C. 

309,848  55  4 

59-777 

21. 0 

59.4T5[22.4 

362 

49 

310,071  7S.5 

Term. 

410.722  38.7 

216.227 

27-3 

214,994,27.8 

1,233 

7-51 

194,495  7i-7 

Tex 

316.432  20  7 

123,912 

15-3 

97,498113.9 

26,414  24.7 

192,520  75.4 

Va.. 

430,352,40.0 

114,692 

18.2 

113,915118.5 

777'    5-4 

315,660)73.7 

VV.Va 

85,376ji9-9 

75, =37 

18.3 

72.826 

18.6 

2.4III3.5 

10,139 

55-° 

Total 

4-7i5,30S  36-5 

1,672,951 

^7 

1,602,550 

19.5 

70,401   11 .4 

3,042.444 

£i 

D.  C. 

25.77818.8 

3.088 

♦■3 

1,950 

2.6 

2,038  12. 1 

21,790 

484 

X.  M. 

57.156  65.0 

49.597 

02.2 

40.329 

64.2 

3-268J43-3 

7-559 

92.2 

Total 

82,934 

41.0 

53-585 
I 

33  •  3 

48,279 

33-4 

5,3o6 

H 

29.349 

70.4 

2^0 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


So  far  as  these  figures  present  a  comparison 
between  the  North  and  the  South,  they  are  valua- 
ble only  as  showing  conclusively  that  Slavery  was 
the  nurse  of  Ignorance.  There  is  no  reason  why 
twenty  per  cent  of  the  native  whites  of  the  South 
and  only  three  and  one-fifth  per  cent  of  the  native 


TABLE    EE. 
The  Black  Belt.      Census  of  1880. 


TABLE    FF. 

Illiterates,    Ten    Years  Old    and    Upward,    in    the    Black  Belt. 
Census  of  1 8 So. 


States. 

Total 
Illit- 
erates. 

Per 
ct. 

Whit's 

Per 
ct. 

Na- 
tive 

Whit's 

Per 
ct. 

For- 
eign. 

1 

Per 
ct. 

i 

Colored. 

Per 
ct. 

Virginia  . . 

430,352 

40.6 

114,692 

18.2 

"3,9*5 

18.5 

1        ! 
7771  5-4 

315,660173.7 

N.Carolina. 

4°3'975 

48.3 

192,032131.5 

191,913  31.7 

"91   3-3 

271,943  77 

4 

S.  Carolina. 

369,848 

55-4 

59,777121.9 

59,415  22.4 

362    49 

310,071178 

3 

Georgia  . . . 

520,416 

4Q.9 

128,934122.9 

128,362  23.2 

572;   5-6 

391.48281 

6 

Florida  .... 

80,183 

43-4 

i9.7&3|i9-9 

19,024  20.7 

739  TO   O 

60.420170 

7 

Alabama.. 

433,447 

50.9 

111,767124.7 

111,040  25 .0 

727      7.7 

32i,68o!8o 

6 

Mississippi. 

373,201 

49-5 

53,448  16  3 

52,910  16.6 

538      6.0 

3i9,753i75 

2 

Louisiana.. 

318.380 

49.1 

58,951  18.4 

53,261  19.8 

5,690  IO.9 

259,429  79.1 

Total... 

2,989,802 

48.4 

739,364122.2 

729,840,24.7 

9,5  =  4;    8.4 

1              1 

2,250,438  78.1 

I 

A  New   Complication.  231 

whites  of  the  North,  should  be  illiterate,  except 
that  liberty  implies  intelligence  and  slavery  pre- 
fers ignorance,  and  that  slavery  ruled  the  one  and 
freedom  the  other.  In  a  free  settlement  the 
school-house  was  a  thing  of  first  necessity  ;  in  a 
slave-holding  community  it  was  the  last  thing  pro- 
vided for  the  people.  The  slave-holding  States 
allowed  the  rich  to  educate  themselves,  and  left 
the  poor  without  opportunity.  The  fruit  of 
slavery  at  the  South  was  six  times  as  large  a  pro- 
portion of  ignorance  even  among  the  free  whites 
as  was  to  be  found  at  the  North.  The  Free  States 
encouraged  intelligence  in  all.  Some  of  them 
made  it  compulsory.  The  Slave  States  enforced 
ignorance  by  statute  upon  the  slave,  and  left  the 

TABLE    GG. 
Male  Adults  in  the  Black  Belt.      Census  of  1SS0. 


States. 


Total 


Total 

White  Male 

Adults. 


Virginia i 

North  Carolina.! 
South  Carolina.,  j 

Georgia ! 

Florida    j 

Alabama 

Mississippi 

Louisiana ' 


206,248 
189.732 

86.900 
177-967 

34,210 
141. 461 
108.254 
108,810 


0S2 


3^474   I 
44,420  1 
13.924 
28,571 
4.706 
24,450 
12.473   I 
16,377 


176.395  ;  16.7 


Total 

Illiterate 

Colored 

Colored 

Per 

Male 

Male 

cent. 

Adults. 

Adults. 

Total 

Colored 

Male 

Adults. 

128,257 

105.018 

118.889 

143-471 

27.489 

118.423 

130.278 

107.977 

879,802  j 

100,210 

80.282 

93,010 

116,516 
19,110 
96.408 
90,068 

86,555 


091,159 


78.1 

76  4 

78.2 

81 

69 

81 

76 

80 


78. 5 


Total  Male  Adults 1,033.384 

Illiterate  Male  Adults 867.554  145.0  per  cent.) 


-  J- 


An  Appeal  to  Casar. 


poor  white  man  without  opportunity.  It  will  be 
seen,  therefore,  that  the  present  state  of  affairs  is 
not  the  result  of  war  nor  of  any  external  influence, 
but  the  direct  and  natural  outcome  of  the  institu- 
tions of  the  South  and  of  those  theories  of  srov- 
ernment  and  statesmanship  prevailing  among  that 
class  who  still  claim  the  right  to  control  her  des- 
tiny and  shape  her  policy.  Beyond  this,  all  com- 
parison with  the  North  or  consideration  of  the 
illiteracy  in  the  Northern  States  is  unnecessary. 
Her  educational  machinery  is  so  powerful,  so  free, 
so  universal,  so  liberally  supported  and  popularly 
sustained,  that  it  matters  not  how  great  the  influx 
of  foreign  illiterates  may  be,  or  what  the  circum- 
stances affecting  her  prosperity,  they  are  not  able 
to  increase  in  any  sensible  degree  the  proportion 
of  native  illiterates  within  her  borders.  She  may 
not  be  able  to  cure  the  ignorance  of  the  foreign- 
born  who  come  uninstructed  to  her  shores,  but 
their  children  feel  the  stimulus  of  her  institutions, 
and  in  the  first  or  second  generation  at  the  far- 
thest cease  to  be  counted  among  the  illiterates. 


These  figures  of  the  census,  however,  utterly 
fail  to  give  the  real  facts.  One  of  the  encourag- 
ing phases  of  the  present  situation  is  the  fact  that 


A  New  Com  pile  at  ion.  233 

a  colored  man  is  proud  of  the  distinction  of  being 
able  to  read  and  write.  It  is  to  him  a  sort  of 
patent  of  nobility.  It  shows  to  the  world  that  he 
has  gone  above  the  level,  that  he  has  come  up 
above  the  mass  of  his  fellows,  and  is  worthy  of 
distinction  and  consideration,  in  this  respect  if  in 
no  other.  Because  of  these  facts,  the  statistics  of 
illiteracy  among  the  colored  people  are  peculiarly 
unreliable.  The  man  or  woman  who  has  but  the 
faintest  knowledge  of  the  Cadmean  mysteries  is 
very  apt  to  figure  in  the  census-taker's  books  as 
able  to  read  and  write.  To  satisfy  my  own  con- 
viction upon  this  subject,  I  examined,  not  long 
since,  the  original  returns  of  some  townships  of 
the  South  in  which  I  was  personally  acquainted 
with  almost  every  individual.  I  found  there  not 
a  few  persons  entered  as  able  to  read  and  to  write 
whose  capacity  to  do  either,  to  my  own  personal 
knowledge,  was  limited  to  the  bare  possibility  of 
mastering  the  significance  of  the  simplest  words, 
or  the  writing  only  of  their  own  names.  So  far 
as  any  practical  benefit  to  be  derived  therefrom 
is  concerned,  instead  of  seventy  per  cent  of  the 
colored  race  being  set  down  as  illiterate  it  would 
be  much  nearer  the  truth  if  ninety  per  cent  were 
to  be  so  regarded.    True,  taking  the  figures  as  they 


234  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

stand,  they  represent  a  progress  during  the  fifteen 
years  previous  to  1880  which,  under  the  circum- 
stances, is  absolutely  incredible.  During  at  least 
one-third  of  that  period  there  were  practically  no 
public  schools  whatever  in  the  South.  During 
the  remainder  of  that  time  the  average  school- 
period  in  the  various  States  has  been  less  than 
one  hundred  days  in  a  year.  And  the  average 
attendance  of  the  colored  children  within  school- 
age,  during  even  that  limited  period,  has  been 
less  than  forty  per  cent  of  the  whole  of  that  class. 
The  only  other  opportunity  which  the  race  has 
had  for  acquiring  knowledge  has  been  from  a  few 
hundred  private  schools  scattered  here  and  there 
through  the  various  States,  the  aggregate  attend- 
ance at  which  has  probably  not  at  any  one  time 
equaled  one  hundred  thousand.  The  progress  of 
the  colored  race  since  the  era  of  emancipation  has 
unquestionably  been  the  most  amazing  that  the 
world  has  ever  known.  Considering  the  point  at 
which  they  started,  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  situated,  and  the  disadvantages  which 
surrounded  them,  there  is  no  question  that  their 
advancement  in  knowledge,  in  power,  in  wealth, 
and  in  the  mastery  of  the  elements  of  civilization 
has  been  unequaled  by  that  of  any  race  that  his- 


A  New    Complication.  235 

tory  records  ;  but  that  so  great  a  proportion  as 
thirty  per  cent  should  have  become,  in  any  just 
sense  of  the  term,  able  to  read  and  write,  with  the 
meager  advantages  which  have  been  placed  before 
them,  is  an  absolute  impossibility.  That  even 
fifteen  per  cent,  or  half  of  what  is  claimed,  should 
be  able  to  read  with  ordinary  facility  the  simplest 
prose  narrative,  or  to  write  ordinary  English  with 
sufficient  accuracy  to  make  it  reasonably  compre- 
hensible to  another,  would  in  itself  constitute 
almost  a  miracle.  It  is  true,  the  tendency  to  pro- 
fess greater  knowledge  than  they  have  is  one  of 
the  encouraging  features  in  the  development  of 
the  race,  showing  as  it  does  not  merely  a  pride  in~^> 
the  fact  of  knowledge,  but  an  appreciation  of 
the  fact  that  knowledge  is  the  chiefest  inheritance 
of  the  free  men.  So  far,  however,  as  it  bears 
upon  the  question  of  danger  to  be  apprehended, 
or  harmony  to  be  expected  between  the  races 
at  the  South,  the  actual  illiteracy  of  the  colored 
people  may  safely  be  put  at  eighty-five  or  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  whole.  The  road  from  ignorance 
to  knowledge  is  not  one  lightly  to  be  passed  over, 
and  half  a  generation  is  too  short  a  period  to  show 
such  results  as  have  been  claimed  from  the  mea- 
ger instrumentalities  that  have  been  employed. 


236  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

The  writer  desires  here  to  note  the  fact  that  he 
has  personal  knowledge  of  several  colored  men 
who  had  reached  man's  estate  before  emancipa- 
tion, who  have  learned  to  read  and  write  very 
fairly  without  having  attended  school  at  all.  One 
of  these,  who  has  just  completed  the  purchase  of 
a  homestead  through  the  author's  co-operation, 
conducted  nearly  all  the  correspondence  in  regard 
to  the  business  himself.  His  letters  were  by  no 
means  faultless,  but  they  were  intelligible  and  very 
sensible.  Yet  with  all  their  anxiety  to  acquire 
knowledge,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  census 
reports  as  able  to  read  and  write  not  a  few  who 
have  no  just  right  to  be  so  classed. 

The  same  is  true,  but  in  a  less  degree,  of  the 
ignorant  whites  of  the  South.  They  have  some- 
thing of  the  same  pride  in  a  reputation  for  intel- 
ligence, though  far  less  inclination  to  acquire 
knowledge.  Upon  this  point  the  words  of  a 
Democratic  State  Superintendent  of  Schools  in 
one  of  these  States  may  well  be  noted.  They  are 
a  striking  tribute  to  the  elasticity  of  spirit  and 
determination  to  rise  which  the  colored  race  has 
manifested. 

"Take  the  negro  and  put  him  along  with  that  class  of 
whites  who  are  on  a  level  with  him  in  intelligence  and   in 


A  New  Complication.  237 

opportunities,  and  he  is  a  great  deal  more  interested  in 
the  question  of  the  education  of  his  children  than  the 
whites  have  been. 

"  I  have  seen  negro  children  all  over  the  State,  here  and 
there,  going  to  school  in  such  garbs  as  the  white  children 
would  not  appear  in,  and  it  was  not  because  the  parents 
did  not  want  to  put  them  in  a  better  condition,  but  be- 
cause they  were  absolutely  unable  to  do  it.  They  would 
have  a  long  shirt  on,  reaching,  perhaps,  half  way  down  the 
legs,  and  nothing  else,  with  a  piece  of  ash-cake  and 
broiled  bacon — not  bacon,  but  pickled  pork — for  their 
dinner.  I  account  for  it  on  this  ground  :  the  white  peo- 
ple who  are  without  the  privileges  of  education,  and  whose 
children  are  not  educated,  and  who  are  keeping  their 
children  at  home  without  education,  have  been  so  long 
without  the  benefits  and  privileges  of  education  that  they 
have  reached  a  state  of  stupor  which  it  is  hard  to  get  them 
out  of." 

Even  with  a  population  entirely  homogeneous, 
without  any  distinction  of  race  or  caste  to  dis- 
turb the  public  peace  or  social  harmony,  such 
a  predominance  of  ignorance  as  is  found  in  these 
States  would  be  an  element  of  the  utmost  danger 

o 

in  any  republic.  In  this  case,  however,  we  have  a 
mass  of  ignorance  amounting  to  forty-five  per 
cent  of  the  whole  population  over  ten  years  old, 
composed  largely  of  negroes  recently  emancipated 
from  slavery,  living  under  the  traditions  of  inferi- 


25S  An  Appeal  to  Ctes 


ar 


ority,  subject  to  all  the  aggravation  and  insult 
which  a  race  boastful  of  its  superiority  would 
naturally  offer.  And  side  by  side  with  this  we 
have  a  mass  of  ignorance  just  as  dense,  and  far 
more  hopeless  because  the  spur  of  ambition  has 
long  since  been  blunted  in  their  natures, — the  ig- 
norant whites  of  the  South,  amounting  to  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  adult  white  population  in 
many  of  the  States. 

Between  these  two  masses  of  ignorance  the  in- 
nate hostility  of  race  and  caste  exists  with  an  in- 
tensity that  no  Northern  man  can  measure.  They 
are  two  great  clouds  upon  the  horizon  of  our 
civilization,  charged  with  electric  forces,  ready  to 
flash  forth  and  destroy  each  other  at  any  mo- 
ment when  some  unfortunate  occasion  may  bring 
them  into  hostile  collision. 


"Am  I   my  Brother's 
Keeper?" 

"  A  LL  this  may  be  true  enough  of  the  South," 
***  says  the  reluctant  Northern  man  who  has 
long  since  made  up  his  mind — as  he  says  to  him- 
self, "once  for  all"" — that  the  state  or  condition 
of  the  negro  shall  never  again  with  his  consent 
become  a  factor  in  American  politics.  "  All  this," 
he  says,  "  may  be  true  enough  of  the  South,  but 
what  have  we  of  the  North  to  do  with  it  ?  The 
South  is  simply  reaping  the  natural  harvest  of  her 
own  neglect  and  crime.     She  would   insist  upon 


240  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

retaining  slavery,  and  slavery,  as  you  have  shown, 
brought  ignorance,  and  that  ignorance  may  now 
bring  peril ;  but  what  interest  have  we  in  the 
matter?  How  does  it  affect  us,  our  personal  re- 
lations to  the  government,  our  duty  to  ourselves 
or  humanity?" 

This  objector  represents  a  very  large,  intelligent, 
and  worthy  portion  of  our  Northern  citizenship. 
He  is  entirely  sincere  in  the  question  which  he 
asks,  and  any  objection  which  he  makes  is  worthy 
of  serious  consideration.  While  entertaining 
nothing  like  positive  hostility  toward  the  white 
people  of  the  South,  he  does  not  pretend  to  deny 
that  he  experiences  a  certain  sort  of  satisfaction 
in  seeing  the  people  who  engaged  in  war  in  order 
to  maintain  the  institution  of  slavery  smart  a 
little  for  their  own  fault.  He  is  all  the  more  will- 
ing to  entertain  this  feeling  because  he  thinks  he 
recognizes  a  sort  of  poetical  justice  in  the  present 
situation.  That  the  freedman  should  be  a  source 
of  perplexity,  annoyance,  and  expense,  or  even 
danger,  to  the  people  of  the  South,  seems  to  him 
to  be  just  what  they  deserve  ;  and  as  long  as  the 
danger  or  annoyance  is  of  a  character  not  to  shock 
the  sensibilities  of  the  world,  or  to  affect  his  own 
relations  to  the  government  either  as  an   indivi- 


"Am  I  My  Brother  s  Keeper?"    241 

dual  or  a  citizen  of  a  Northern  State,  he  is  very 
loath  to  give  the  matter  any  special  consideration. 

There  are  certain  specific  reasons  why  even  a 
man  of  this  class  cannot  afford  to  look  with  in- 
difference upon  the  subject  herein  presented  for 
consideration.  At  the  present  we  will  specify  but 
one,  to  wit  : 

Because  the  States  in  which  this  mass  of  igno- 
rance, averaging  forty  per  cent  or  more  of  their 
voters,  is  to  be  found  represent  seventy-six  per  cent 
of  a  majority  in  the  Electoral  College,  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  and  i?i  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States. 

This  is  a  full  and  complete  answer  to  the  objec- 
tion. No  Northern  man,  no  matter  how  selfish, 
no  matter  how  debased,  his  idea  of  political  power 
may  be,  dare  permit  three-fourths  of  the  power 
necessary  to  choose  a  President,  and  a  like  pro- 
portion of  a  majority  in  each  of  our  national 
legislative  bodies,  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  con- 
stituencies of  whom  practically  one-half  are  un- 
able to  read  their  ballots,  and  consequently  unable 
to  apprehend  and  perform  aright  the  duties  of  the 
citizen.  But  this  fact  only  brings  home  to  the 
consciousness  of  the  Northern  man  a  still  deeper 
interest  in   the  question  we  are  considering.     A 


242  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

vast  proportion  of  this  ignorance  was  given  power 
at  his  express  instance,  perhaps  at  his  individual 
demand  and  request.  However  that  may  be,  the 
fact  that  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  colored 
votersof  the  South  are  at  the  same  time  illiter- 
ates puts  upon  every  Northern  man  who  has 
actively  or  passively  assisted  in  their  emancipa- 
tion and  enfranchisement  a  responsibility  for  the 
present  and  prospective  state  of  affairs  at  the 
South  which,  whether  he  desires  it  or  not,  must 
not  only  bring  the  negro  into  national  politics 
again,  but  must  render  him  a  more  potent  and 
important  element  of  the  same  than  ever  before. 

The  assertion  may  seem  a  startling  one,  yet  it 
is  none  the  less  true.  The  condition  of  the 
African  as  a  slave  was  of  far  less  importance  to 
the  North  than  is  his  condition — his  present  and 

future  status — as  a  free  man  and  a  citizen.     The 

< 

interest  which  the  people  of  the  North  felt  in  the 
question  of  slavery  was  purely  theoretic  and  sym- 
pathetic. So  far  as  the  material  prosperity  of  a 
citizen  of  Massachusetts  was  concerned,  it  mat- 
tered not  a  whit  whether  there  were  four  million 
slaves  or  forty  millions  in  '-he  South.  So  far  as 
the  prosperity  of  the  country,  the  security  of  the 
iiovernment,  the  collection  of  the   revenues,  the 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper  V %      243 

regulation  of  the  tariff,  and  all  other  questions  of 
a  national  character  were  concerned,  the  negro  as 
a  slave  was  a  most  insignificant  factor.  It  is  true 
that  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  the  repre- 
sentative power  of  the  Slave  States  was  increased 
by  three-fifths  the  number  of  slaves  held  therein. 
This  power,  of  course,  was  exercised  by  the  mas- 
ters and  constituted  the  sole  ground  of  objection 
of  a  political  character  or  affecting  public  inter- 
est which  any  citizen  of  the  North  could  make 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  This  power, 
however,  at  no  time  seemed  at  all  likely  to  seri- 
ously affect  the  national  interest  or  prosperity. 
It  is  true  that  in  the  enactment  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  law  it  made  itself  disagreeably  felt  toward 
the  North  ;  but  for  this  fact  the  North  had  only 
itself  to  blame,  since  the  power  of  the  South — 
even  with  the  advantage  derived  from  its  'ficti- 
tious enumeration — was  at  no  time  so  considera- 1 
ble  as  to  prove  dangerous  to  Northern  interests 
or  even  to  Northern  sentiment.  It  was  the  pro- 
slavery  element  of  the  North  which  made  the 
aggressions  of  slavery  possible,  whether  in  the 
domination  of  the  territories  or  the  enactment  of 
the  Fugitive  Slave  law. 

Even    in    this    view,    however,    the    power    of 


244  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

slavery  would  not  have  been  felt  at  the  North, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  development  of  a  senti- 
ment which  revolted  at  the  injustice  and  in- 
humanity of  the  institution.  The  North  pitied 
the  slave  because  he  was  oppressed.  The  people 
of  the  North  were  outraged  when  they  were  re- 
quired by  national  law  to  assist  in  the  return  of 
fugitives  from  labor,  because  they  regarded  the 
state  of  slavery  from  which  the  fugitive  had  fled 
as  one  of  injustice  and  oppression.  The  slave 
was  a  man  forcibly  deprived  of  a  natural  and  in- 
herent right,  the  right  of  self-control,  of  "  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  Not  from 
any  desert  on  his  part,  not  because  of  any  infrac- 
tion of  the  laws  of  society,  but  simply  because 
another  man  desired  to  hold  and  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  his  labor.  Because  of  this  theoretical  interest 
in  the  condition  of  the  slave,  the  people  of  the 
North  grew,  year  by  year,  more  and  more  op- 
posed to  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  more  and 
more  bitterly  averse  to  its  extension  and  perpetu- 
ation. Then  began  that  irrepressible  conflict  which 
is  not  yet  ended,  and  which  cannot  end  until  its 
causes  have  been  eradicated.  This  sympathy  with 
the  colored  man,  however,  was  based  apparently 
and  solely  upon  the  condition  of  servitude  in  which 


"Am  I  my  Brother's  Keeper  ?"     245 

he  was  placed.  Because  he  was  a  slave  the  heart 
of  the  North  went  out  toward  him,  extended  its 
hand  in  helpfulness,  and  made  the  earth  vocal 
with  objurgations  of  the  system  which  deprived 
him  of  his  rights.  Slavery  was  the  point  of 
attack  ;  the  slave  the  focus  of  sympathy.  The  fact 
that  he  was  of  another  race  was  a  mere  incident. 
It  was  thought  to  be  insignificant.  The  North 
had  proved  by  its  own  experience  that  ten 
thousand  white  men  and  one  negro  could  live 
peaceably  together.  That  there  should  be  any 
question  about  a  million  white  men  and  a  million 
negroes  living  side  by  side  in  peace  never  once 
entered  their  consideration.  They  saw  only  the 
fact  of  slavery.  All  of  its  concomitants  were 
ignored.  Ignorance,  poverty,  race,  color,  and 
even  the  effects  of  the  previous  condition  of 
servitude — all  these  were  thrown  to  the  winds. 
By  a  stroke  of  the  pen  the  attempt  was  made  to 
eradicate  all  differences,  to  put  the  old  slave  and 
the  former  master  upon  the  same  level  of  right 
and  power,  blot  out  the  line  between  the  races, 
and  secure  at  once  in  the  South  the  peace  and 
prosperity  which  characterized  the  Northern  com- 
munities. By  this  course  one  result  was  obtained. 
The  negro  became  a  political  power:  whether  for 


246  An  Appeal  10  Gcesar. 

good  or  for  evil  must  depend  upon  the  method 
of  its  exercise,  or,  perhaps,  upon  the  fact  of  its 
exercise  at  all.  Instead  of  swelling  the  enumera- 
tion upon  which  representation  and  the  electoral 
power  are  based  by  three-fifths  of  their  number 
only,  every  colored  man  now  constitutes  a  full 
governmental  unit.  And  this  unit  of  power  must 
either  exercise  the  authority  vested  in  him  as  one 
of  the  governing  body,  not  only  of  the  State  but 
of  the  United  States, — rightly  or  wrongly  accord- 
ing as  he  has  knowledge,  capacity,  and  patriot- 
ism,— or  he  must  fail  to  exercise  that  right  be- 
cause of  negligence  on  his  own  part  or  fraud  or 
violence  on  the  part  of  others. 

Let  us  consider  these  three  conditions:  remem- 
bering what  has  been  shown  hitherto  in  regard  to 
the  influence  of  race-prejudice,  and  what  has  been 
fully  demonstrated  by  twenty  years  of  experi- 
ment,— that  the  colored  race,  in  the  main,  acts 
and  will  act  by  itself  upon  all  political  questions; 
and  that  over  against  it  stands,  and  will  continue 
to  stand  unless  some  solvent  is  found  which  shall 
modify  the  feeling  which  exists,  the  great  mass  of 
the  white  people  of  the  South.  Let  us  consider 
first  what  reasonable  prospect  there  is  that  the 
mass   of  voters    reared    under   the    influences    of 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper?"     247 

slavery,  or  less  than  a  generation  removed  there- 
from— a  mass  whose  illiteracy  had  been  secured 
by  statute  ;  a  race  on  whom  none  of  the  responsi- 
bilities of  government  had  rested  ;  who  knew  none 
of  the  details  of  business  or  affairs  ;  who  were  ut- 
terly impoverished  because  slavery  had  consumed 
their  earnings  ;  who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  none  of 
the  rights  of  citizenship,  not  even  the  right  to 
marry  or  give  in  marriage,  or  to  claim  as  their 
own  the  sons  and  daughters  that  were  born  to 
them — what  prospect,  what  probability,  what  pos- 
sibility was  there  which  a  reasonable  human  being 
should  consider  for  a  moment  that  the  individ- 
uals of  this  mass  could  safely,  properly,  and  wisely 
exercise  the  power  of  the  citizen  in  the  shaping 
and  direction  of  domestic  or  national  affairs?  It 
was  impossible  for  any  person  to  believe  that 
would  be  the  case.     No  one  did  believe  it. 

Just  three  distinct  influences  operated  upon  the 
minds  of  our  national  legislators  and  induced 
them  to  attempt  this  great  and  terribje  experi- 
ment. First,  they  did  not  realize  the  fact  that 
slavery  was  anything  more  than  a  transitory,  in- 
cidental evil.  They  comprehended  nothing  of 
the  ignorance,  the  poverty,  the  ineptness  of  the 
race  which  they  endowed  with  power.     The  only 


248  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

question  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to  dis- 
cuss in  the  political  arena  bearing  upon  the  per- 
sonality of  the  negro  was  the  question  whether  he 
was  a  man  of  like  power  and  instinct  with  the 
white  man.  In  the  first  hours  of  freedom  he  was 
watched  with  anxious  care  to  see  whether  the 
dawning  of  intelligent  power  were  visible  or  not. 
They  noted  with  exultation  every  indication  of 
intelligence,  capacity,  courage,  vigor,  fitness,  that 
might  be  developed,  and,  inferring  from  these  in- 
dications the  ultimate  fitness  of  the  race  for  civili- 
zation and  self-government,  forgot  that  a  chasm  of 
unknown  width  lay  between  their  former  condi- 
tion and  that  which  they  were  capable  ultimately 
of  attaining. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Republican  Party,  which 
then  wielded  the  power  of  government  in  all  its 
branches,  was  fearful  that  the  Democratic  Party  of 
the  North,  allying  itself  with  the  rebellious  white 
element  of  the  South,  might  obtain  the  ascend- 
ency in  the  government  and  undo  all  that  had 
been  acomplished.  This  fear  was  not  without 
foundation.  The  long  delay  in  determining  what 
should  be  done  with  the  subjugated  region,  what 
method  of  reconstruction  or  rehabilitation  should 
be  adopted,  had  given  time  for  the  recovery  from 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper  ?"      249 

the  first  feeling  of  subjugation  and  humiliation  on 
the  part  of  the  South.  Anger  had  taken  the 
place  of  fear,  and  defiance  was  rapidly  usurping 
the  feeling  of  complete  submission  which  had  ob- 
tained with  the  Southern  people  immediately 
upon  the  close  of  the  war.  Resistance  to  any 
measure  of  reconstruction  which  contemplated 
the  elevation  of  the  negro  in  the  social  or  politi- 
cal scale,  beyond  the  mere  fact  of  his  freedom, 
had  become  the  prevailing  sentiment  of  the 
South.  To  this  the  Democratic  Party  of  the 
North  yielded  a  cheerful  assent,  and  the  clamor- 
ous hostility  of  the  re-united  factions  of  that 
party,  which  had  so  long  administered  the  govern- 
ment in  former  times,  certainly  offered  abundant 
ground  for  apprehension  that  the  party  which  had 
put  down  rebellion  and  proposed  to  make  the 
slave  a  freedman  might  be  swept  out  of  power  as 
soon  as  the  ballot  should  be  restored  to  the  hands 
of  the  disaffected  Southern  race.  For  the  pur- 
pose of  counteracting  this  influence  and  to  estab- 
lish a  body  of  voters  at  the  South  whose  actions 
should  neutralize  that  of  the  disaffected  whites, 
the  Republican  Party  so  shaped  its  reconstruc- 
tionary  measures  as  not  only  to  make  the  colored 
man  a  voter  in  the  several  States,  but  to  assure  to 


250  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

him,  with  a  small  proportion  of  the  whites  who 
might  act  in  conjunction  with  him,  a  dominant 
majority  in  every  State  of  the  South.  This  was 
not  done,  as  the  white  people  of  the  South  sup- 
posed, with  any  idea  of  affronting,  humiliating,  or 
injuring  them.  The  Northern  legislator  had  no 
adequate  conception  of  their  feeling  toward  the 
negroes  as  a  race,  nor  any  desire  to  impose  upon 
them  any  unnecessary  humiliation.  Regarded 
from  the  view  of  the  partisan  it  was  merely  a 
movement  to  prevent  the  development  of  the 
opposition  party  by  means  of  the  power  restored 
to  the  disaffected  element.  It  was  only  playing 
the  freed  slave  against  the  recent  rebel.  It  was  a 
game  by  which  the  Republicans  sought  to  beat 
the  Democratic  Party  wit'h  its  own  weapons.  The 
South  was  clamoring  for  representation  in  the 
government.  Two  or  three  schemes  of  short-hand 
reconstruction  had  been  devised  and  attempted  to 
be  carried  into  operation  by  the  Executive  and 
his  Democratic  friends  in  the  National  Legisla- 
ture, for  the  purpose  of  giving  to  the  white 
people  of  the  South  again,  without  limitation  or  re- 
striction, the  same  power  in  the  administration  of 
the  government  which  they  had  exercised  before 
the  act  of  rebellion.     The  policy  of  the  Republi- 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper?"      251 

can  Party,  considered  as  a  mere  act  of  partisan- 
ship, was  to  grant  to  the  white  people  of  the 
South  all  or  nearly  all  that  they  asked,  but  to 
couple  with  it  such  conditions  as  should  render  it 
powerless  in  their  hands  for  the  purpose  for 
which  they  chiefly  desired  to  obtain  it ;  to  wit,  in 
order  that  by  co-operation  with  the  Democratic 
Party  of  the  North  they  might  thrust  the  Repub- 
lican Party  out  of  power  and  undo  so  far  as  possi- 
ble all  the  legislation  connected  with  and  ren- 
dered necessary  by  the  events  of  the  war.  As  to 
what  might  be  the  ultimate  result  of  the  meas- 
ures thus  hastily  concocted  to  thwart  a  threaten- 
ing opposition,  it  is  probable  that  but  very  few  of 
those  who  were  responsible  for  its  adoption  paid 
any  very  serious  heed  to  their  consideration. 
Those  who  did  were  so  imperfectly  informed  as 
to  the  real  state  of  affairs,  so  imperfectly  compre- 
hended the  relations  which  centuries  had  estab- 
lished between  the  races  as  well  as  between  mas- 
ter and  slave,  and  had  been  so  startled  by  the 
swift  development  of  the  blacks  during  the  few 
months  which  followed  the  close  of  hostilities  (a 
fact  very  unexpected  to  the  masses  of  the  people 
of  the  North,  and  consequently  seeming  to  be 
much  more   significant   than  it   really  was),  that 


252  -  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

they  were  entirely  blinded  to  the  fact  that  no 
possible  development  could  in  the  short  space  of 
a  few  years,  a  decade,  or  a  generation  obliterate 
the  growth  of  centuries. 

As  a  third  influence,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  two  years  had  elapsed  after  the  surrender  of 
the  Confederate  forces  before  any  definite  plan 
of  reconstruction  had  been  agreed  upon  by  the 
legislative  branch  of  the  government  and  was 
ready  to  be  put  in  force.  It  was  perhaps  not 
unreasonable  that  the  people  of  the  North  and 
of  the  South  should  begin  to  clamor  at  this 
apparently  unnecessary  delay.  The  truth  is  that 
the  national  legislators  instinctively  felt  their 
inability  to  cope  with  the  subject.  In  fact  their 
eyes  were  still  blinded  by  the  glamour  of  battle. 
Whatever  social  or  political  phenomena  appeared 
at  the. South  they  attributed  at  once  not  to  any 
pre-existent  causes,  but  to  the  war  and  its  con- 
sequences. In  nothing  has  the  fact  that  the 
North  and  South  really  constituted  two  peoples, 
ignorant  of  each  other's  characteristics  to  a  re- 
markable degree,  been  so  apparent  as  in  the 
groping,  hesitating  blunders  attending  the  legisla- 
tion of  this  era.  The  representatives  of  both 
parties   were   equally   at    fault.      The    Northern 


"Am  I  my   Brother  s  Keeper?"      253 

Democrat,  receiving  his  inspiration  entirely  from 
the  Southern  white  man,  blinded  with  the  rage 
of  defeat,  speaking  only  the  language  which 
slavery  had  taught,  was  hardly  further  from  the 
truth  than  the  Republican  who  attributed  all  the 
phenomena  which  were  developed,  not  to  the 
influence  of  years  of  development  that  went 
before  the  war,  but  to  the  animosity  engendered 
by  the  struggle.  To  the  Southern  white  man, 
anything  that  looked  toward  the  elevation  of 
the  negro  beyond  the  mere  fact  of  his  liberty, 
— which  as  a  rule  he  was  willing  to  concede, — 
any  other  civil  or  political  right  which  it 
was  proposed  to  confer  upon  the  recent  slave, 
seemed  a  direct  assault  upon  the  master  himself. 
Why  the  fact  of  liberty  should  give  to  the 
colored  man  the  right  to  testify  against  the 
white  man  in  courts  of  justice,  he  was  utterly 
unable  to  conceive.  Why  it  should  change  the 
rules  of  law  which  had  been  enforced,  why  it 
should  modify  the  presumptions  which  had  borne 
so  hardly  upon  the  colored  man  during  the  period 
of  slavery,  why  it  should  give  him  the  right  to 
enter  the  jury-box,  to  hold  the  ballot,  to  pass 
from  place  to  place  without  the  permission  of 
his  employer,  or  to  exercise  any  privilege  which 


254  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

had  not  been  granted  during  the  period  of 
slavery  to  the  free  colored  man  of  the  South,  the 
Southern  white  man  could  not  understand.  Be- 
cause he  was  unable  to  comprehend  this  neces- 
sity or  to  see  any  reason  or  justice  therein,  all  of 
these  measures  seemed  to  him  direct  affronts  in- 
tended only  to  humiliate  and  degrade  a  defeated 
foe.  He  never  once  imagined  that  in  this  matter 
the  North  or  the  Republican  Party  was  animated 
by  any  feeling  of  justice  or  impelled  by  any  logi- 
cal necessity.  He  regarded  the  Republican  Party 
as  founded  not  on  any  feeling  of  right  or  upon 
any  humane  impulse,  but  as  animated  solely  by  a 
sentiment  of  hatred  for  the  white  people  of  the 
South.  He  believed  that  the  war  had  been  waged 
entirely  for  the  purpose  of  depriving  him  of  his 
right,  and  that  all  those  measures  which  were 
adopted  at  its  close  were  designed  merely  as  pun- 
ishments to  him  for  having  attempted  to  resist 
aggression  and  tyranny.  Perhaps  no  people  were 
ever  animated  by  a  more  universal  sense  of  injus- 
tice and  oppression  than  the  people  of  the  South  ; 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  almost  all  of  the 
white  people  of  the  South  were  possessed  of  this 
idea.  It  was,  of  course,  strengthened  by  every 
act  of  legislation    in  favor  of   the  colored    man, 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper?"     255 

From  their  standpoint  only  one  of  two  motives 
could  inspire  such  legislation  :  either  the  people 
of  the  North  had  an  especial  and  peculiar  fond- 
ness for  the  colored  people  as  a  race,  or  they  in- 
dulged in  a  bitter  and  relentless  hatred  for  the 
white  people  of  the  South.     They  could  conceive 
of  but  two  reasons  why  the  North  should  be  op- 
posed to  slavery  or  why  the  slaves  should  be  made 
free  :  the  one  was  that  the  people  of  the  North 
were,  so  to  speak,  in  love  with  the  negro,  and  the 
other  that  they  were  full  of  hateful  envy  at  the 
prosperity  and  ease  which  the  South  enjoyed.  To 
these    sentiments    acting    conjointly    upon     the 
Northern  man  they  attributed  the  freedom  of  the 
slave.     The    first   they  regarded  as  unmistakable 
evidence  of  the  hypocrisy  of  all  "  Northern  aboli- 
tionists,"— which   term    included    all    those   who 
were  in  favor  of  extending  freedom  to  the  slave, 
either  before  or  after  the  war,  and  in  an  especial 
sense  embraced  those  who  favored  granting  the 
full  powers  and  privileges  of    free  men    to    the 
emancipated  slave.     They  realized  very  fully  that 
slavery  did  not  touch  the  personal  interest  of  any 
resident  of  a   free  State.     Whether  Virginia  had 
slaves  within    its    borders    or   not,  to    their  view, 
could  not   constitute  any  question  of  interest  to 


256  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  people  of  Massachusetts,  so  that  they  regarded 
the  whole  movement  against*  slavery  at  the  North 
as  founded  in  malice,  hatred,  and  envy.  They  be- 
lieved that  the  mercenary  sentiment  of  the  North 
was  at  the  bottom  of  the  entire  movement.  They 
thought  the  Northern  man  who  labored  with  his 
hands  was  moved  simply  by  a  feeling  of  greed  and 
envy  against  the  master  who  lorded  it  over  a 
hundred  slaves  that  did  his  bidding  while  he  en- 
joyed luxury  and  ease.  Of  course  the  Republican 
Party,  which  had  come  to  represent  the  idea  of 
abolitionism  in  the  minds  of  the  South,  was  be- 
lieved to  be  animated  by  the  same  motive.  To 
speak  of  hostility  to  slavery  as  inspired  by  a  high 
and  noble  sense  of  justice  was  to  the  Southern 
man  a  mockery.  He  regarded  it  as  simple  hypoc- 
risy. He  called  these  men  who  claimed  to  be 
animated  by  such  motives  "  sniveling  puritans." 
The  idea  that  they  were  impelled  by  any  generous, 
philanthropic,  and  disinterested  motive  was  to  him 
a  matter  entirely  beyond  belief.  It  seemed  too 
utterly  absurd  and  ridiculous  to  merit  even  re- 
spectful consideration.  How  could  an  honest 
Christian  man  with  a  white  skin  desire  to  take 
the  property  of  another  white  Christian  in  order 
merely  to  gratify  a  negro?     And  if  he  did  really 


'Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper  ?"     2 


5/ 


feel  impelled  by  religious  or  philanthropic  motives 
to  set  the  negro  free,  why  should  he  not  do  two 
things  :  first,  compensate  the  master  for  the  prop- 
erty he  took,  and,  secondly,  remove  the  offensive 
race  from  contact  with  those  whom  they  had 
formerly  served  and  with  whom  there  could  never 
be  any  affiliation  or  assimilation  ? 

Occupying  this  standpoint,  the  Southern  man 
was  naturally  and  not  unreasonably  opposed  to 
anything  that  might  be  done  which  should  in  any 
manner  affect  the  relations  of  the  races  beyond, 
as  has  been  already  stated,  granting  to  the  slave 
the  mere  fact  of  liberty.  This,  it  was  generally 
conceded,  must  be  allowed.  The  hope  was  gen- 
eral if  not  universal  that  in  consideration  of  its 
peaceful  acknowledgment  the  government  would 
recognize  the  right  of  the  master  and  offer  com- 
pensation for  the  property  thus  taken  from  his 
hands  as  a  logical  result  of  war.  This  view  was 
the  one  adopted  by  the  Northern  Democracy, 
and  on  it  was  based  the  clamor  which  finally  im- 
pelled the  party  in  power  to  try  the  dubious  ex- 
periment which  was  at  length  agreed  upon. 

The  defects  of  the  .scheme  were  due  quite  as 
much  to  the  misapprehension  of  the  real  senti- 
ment   and    feeling   of    the  white    people    of   the 


25S  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

South  as  to  misconception  of  the  real  causes  of 
the  phenomena  developed  by  the  fact  of  emanci- 
pation. Instead  of  regarding  the  inherent  differ- 
ences of  race  and  the  long-established  distinctions. 
of  caste  as  of  prime  importance  in  the  matter  of 
restoring  the  subjugated  territory  to  the  relation 
of  constituent  States,  the  Republican  legislators 
acted  upon  the  hypothesis  that  the  recent  slave 
within  a  generation  at  least  would  become  a  com- 
petent, reliable,  self-protecting  citizen.  In  the 
mean  time  they  trusted  much  to  the  influences  of 
Northern  immigration  which  they  supposed  would 
pour  into  the  South,  just  as  it  had  overrun  the 
West.  In  addition  to  this,  they  accounted  the 
opposition  and  hostility  of  the  white  race  merely 
an  incident  of  war  which  would  soon  pass  away 
with  the  ameliorating  influences  of  trade  and 
prosperity.  Misled  by  these  considerations,  they 
shaped  their  legislation  to  cure  a  temporary  evil 
and  not  to  uproot  or  eliminate  a  permanent  cause 
of  discord  or  danger.  It  was  supposed  by  its 
originators  that  long  ere  this  entire  and  absolute 
harmony  would  be  restored  the  colored  man 
would  be  in  peaceful  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights 
of  the  citizen,  and  the  white  people  of  the  South 
would    have    established    the    most    harmonious 


"Am  I  my  Brother  s  Keeper?"     259 

civil    and   political    relations   with    their    former 
slaves. 

The  motives  of  these  acts  were  entirely  good, 
and  their  machinery  well  enough  adapted  to  the 
purpose  in  view,  had  the  evil  been,  as  they  appre- 
hended it,  a  temporary  one  and  not  the  result  of 
long-established  causes.  It  has  proved  a  failure 
simply  because  it  dealt  only  with  the  facts  ap- 
pearing on  the  surface  and  not  with  those  which 
underlay  them  and  were  more  important — be- 
cause enfranchisement  without  specific  and  ample 
provision  for  the  speedy  enlightenment  of  those 
upon  whom  the  ballot  is  conferred  is  so  absurdly 
foolish  as  to  be  worthy  of  consideration  only  as  a 
farce,  were  it  not  that  the  element  of  tragedy  lies 
so  near  the  surface  as  to  forbid  that  we  should 
laugh. 


"Promote,  as  an  ohjeet  of  Tori  me.  importance, 
inslitit  iions  for  th&  genera.  I  diffusion  of 
Jcnowhdqe,.  'Wasninqfon  '3  fa r€ me  11  Address. 


w£*^M^ 


Wisdom  Becometh  a  King. 

HTHE  importance  of  general  intelligence  in  a 
■*■  republic  has  always  been  conceded.  All 
the  founders  of  our  Republic,  all  the  great  minds 
in  philosophy  and  religion  for  the  past  hundred 
years,  have  dwelt  upon  the  advantages,  not  only 
to  the  individual  but  to  the  commonwealth,  of 
intelligence  in  the  citizen.  All  civilized  nations 
now  admit  the  especial  value  of  public  education 
as  a  national  investment,  rendering  as  it  does,  up 
to  a  certain  limit  at  least,  every  individual  more 
capable   of  productive   effort   than   he  otherwise 


Wisdom  Be cometh  a  King.  261 

would  be.  As  a  safeguard  of  free  institutions, 
also,  it  has  always  been  regarded  as  of  the  utmost 
importance ;  but  in  no  nation  was  it  ever  so  over- 
whelmingly important  as  in  our  own,  and  at  no 
period  of  our  history  of  so  grave  interest  as  at 
the  present.  Of  course  where  suffrage  is  limited, 
whether  by  a  proprietary  or  an  educational  qualifi- 
cation, or  by  almost  any  other  reasonable  and 
natural  method,  the  greater  proportion  of  illiter- 
acy is  shut  out  from  any  effective  power  or  influ- 
ence upon  the  government.  With  us,  however, 
where  in  all  except  a  few  of  the  States  the  mere 
fact  of  mature  manhood  is  the  sole  test  of  bal- 
lotorial  right,  the  intelligence  of  the  people  be- 
comes a  matter  of  the  most  absorbing  interest  to 
every  one.  Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  consider 
the  opinions  of  a  few  of  those  most  eminent  in 
our  history,  upon  this  subject.  We  give  them 
briefly,  not  because  we  deem  them  at  all  neces- 
sary, but  because  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  remem- 
ber that  even  in  the  dawning  of  our  Nation's  life 
those  great  men  to  whom  we  are  wont  to  ascribe 
almost  supernal  attributes  looked  forward  to 
ignorance,  even  without  the  complication  of  race 
and  caste,  as  one  of  the  imminent  dangers  which 
might  threaten  the  Republic: 


262  An   Appeal  to  Casar. 

"  In  proportion  as  the  structure  of  a  govern- 
ment gives  force  to  public  opinion  it  is  essential 
that  public  opinion  should  be  enlightened." — 
Washington  s  Farewell  Address. 

"  Knowledge  is  in  every  country  the  surest 
basis  of  public  happiness.  In  one  in  which  the 
measures  of  government  receive  their  impressions 
so  immediately  from  the  sense  of  the  community 
as  in  ours,  it  is  proportionably  essential." — Wash- 
ington s  First  Inaugural  Message. 

"  If  a  nation  expects  to  be  ignorant  and  free  in 
a  state  of  civilization,  it  expects  what  never  was 
and  never  will  be." — Thomas  Jefferson. 

Speaking  of  the  continuance  of  the  tariff  on 
imports,  Jefferson  said  :  "  Patriotism  would  cer- 
tainly prefer  its  continuance  and  application  to 
the  great  purposes  of  the  public  education,  roads, 
rivers,  and  canals."  Again,  calling  attention  to 
the  surplus  revenue,  he  asked :  "  Shall  it  lie  un- 
productive in  the  public  vaults  ;  shall  the  revenue 
be  reduced  ;  or  shall  it  not  rather  be  appropriated 
to  the  improvement  of  roads,  rivers,  canals,  edu- 
cation, and  other  great  foundations  of  prosperity 
and  union  ?" 

"  A  popular  government  without  popular  in- 
formation or  the  means  of  acquiring  it,  is  but  the 


Wisdom   Be cometh  a  King.  26 


prologue   to  a  farce  or  a  tragedy — or  perhaps  to 
both.^ — James  Madison. 

"  The  advancement  of  science  and  the  diffusion 
of  information  is  the  best  element  of  true  lib- 
erty."— James  Madison. 

"  Let  us  by  all  wise  and  constitutional  meas- 
ures promote  intelligence  among  the  people  as 
the  best  means  of  preserving  our  liberties." — 
James  Monroe. 

These  men  were  among  the  wisest  of  the  foun- 
ders of  our  Republic.  Practically  they  knew 
almost  nothing  of  what  we  now  term  "  free  insti- 
tutions." Not  one  of  them  had  ever  lived  in  a 
State  in  which  manhood  constituted  the  sole 
qualification  of  suffrage.  They  had  no  knowledge 
of  a  popular  government  in  which  every  man 
should  exercise  a  co-equal  power  with  every  other. 
Probably  not  one  of  them  even  dreamed  that  such 
a  state  of  affairs  would  ever  exist.  If,  with  their 
imperfect  knowledge  of  what  has  now  become  an 
universal  fact  in  our  government,  they  deemed 
general  intelligence,  popular  education,  and  the 
enlightenment  of  the  masses  the  most  essential 
prerequisite  of  free  institutions,  what  would  have 
been  their  opinion  of  the  danger  likely  to  accrue 
from  universal  suffrage  without  the  concomitant 
of  universal  intelligence? 


264  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

It  ought  not  to  require  the  opinions  of  these,  or 
any  other  wise  men,  to  convince  even  the  dullest 
mind  that  the  most  essential  prerequisite  of  good 
government  in  a  republic  is  the  general  intelli- 
gence of  its  citizens.  It  ought  to  be  as  easy  for 
one  to  understand  that  an  ignorant  voter  is  a 
dangerous  element,  as  to  perceive  the  truth  of  the 
declaration  that  a  king  needs  wisdom  in  order  to 
govern  righteously.  In  truth,  it  is  no  figure  of 
speech  that  terms  the  American  people  a  nation 
of  kings.  On  every  brow  is  the  invisible  token 
of  imperial  authority.  We  have  no  rulers :  we 
only  choose  our  agents.  We  delegate  our  power, 
but  do  not  abrogate  our  sway  thereby.  "  We 
the  people"  are  the  words  in  which  the  fathers 
declared  the  national  will.  More  truly  now  than 
then,  "  we  the  people"  think,  determine,  act  for 
the  American  nation.  Our  nineteenth-century 
Caesar  is  a  myriad-minded  unit.  The  voice  of  the 
majority  is  the  expression  of  the  kingly  will. 
Fifty  millions  participate  in  our  national  councils. 
Every  hand  that  holds  the  ballot  wields  the  baton 
of  authority.  The  lack  of  knowledge  in  the 
voter  is  as  fatal  to  the  prosperity  of  the  republic 
as  the  folly  of  a  king  to  the  peace  of  his  realm. 

Upon  this  subject  there  come  to  us  as  it  were 


Wisdom  Be cometh  a  King.         265 

the  dying  words  of  one  whom  the  Nation  has  not 
yet  ceased  to  mourn  ;  the  words  of  one  who  saw 
and  felt  all  that  we  have  written,  who  dreaded 
the  long  delay,  the  strife,  the  turmoil,  perhaps 
even  the  conflict  that  might  intervene,  but  doubt- 
ed not  for  an  instant  of  the  result.  On  the 
most  momentous  occasion  of  his  life,  when  he 
spoke  in  greeting  and  encouragement,  but  with  a 
solemnity  born  perhaps  of  forecasted  evil,  James 
A.  Garfield  left  as  an  inheritance  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States  his  deliberate  and  urgent 
declaration  that  the  first,  greatest,  and  only  safe- 
guard of  national  power,  prosperity,  and  glory  in 
a  republic  lay  in  the  intelligence  of  the  individual 
voter.  After  his  words,  none  others  need  be 
uttered  : 

u  But  the  danger  which  arises  from  ignorance  in 
the  voter  cannot  be  denied.  It  covers  a  field  far 
wider  than  that  of  negro  suffrage  and  the  present 
condition  of  the  race.  It  is  a  danger  that  lurks 
and  hides  in  the  sources  and  fountains  of  power  in 
every  State.  We  have  no  standard  by  which  to 
measure  the  disaster  that  may  be  brought  upon  7cs 
by  ignorance  and  vice  in  the  citizen  when  joined  to 
corruption  and  fraud  in  the  suffrage. 

"  The  voters  of  the  Union  zu/10  make  and  unmake 


266  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

constitutions,  and  upon  zvlwsc  zvill  hang  the  destinies 
of  our  governments,  can  transmit  their  supreme 
authority  to  no  successors  save  the  coming  genera- 
tion of  voters,  who  are  the  sole  heirs  of  sovereign 
power.  If  that  generation  comes  to  its  ijiheritance 
blinded  by  ignorance  and  corrupted  by  vice,  the  fall 
of  the  Republic  zvill  be  certain  and  remediless. 

"  The  Census  has  already  sounded  the  alarm  in 
the  appalling  figures  which  mark  how  dangerously 
high  the  tide  of  illiteracy  has  risen  among  our 
voters  and  their  children. 

"  To  the  South  this  question  .is  of  supreme  im- 
portance :  but  the  responsibility  for  the  existence  of 
slavery  did  not  rest  upon  the  South  alone.  The 
Nation  itself  is  responsible  for  the  extension  of  the 
suffrage,  and  is  under  special  obligations  to  aid  in 
removing  the  illiteracy  which  it  has  added  to  the 
voting  population.  For  the  North  and  South  alike 
there  is  but  one  remedy." — Garfield's  Inaugural 
Address. 


Is  Education  a  Specific? 

"[  T  may  be  admitted  that  the  intelligence  of 
-*■  the  masses  is  an  essential  of  good  govern- 
ment in  a  republic,  and  yet  it  be  honestly  doubted 
whether  education  is  a  remedy  for  the  evils  we 
have  depicted.  We  do  not  feel  like  saying  with  the 
certainty  of  assured  conviction  that  it  is  a  specific 
for  all  the  woes  likely  to  arise  from  the  causes 
that  have  been  noted.  We  can  only  say  that  we 
do  not  believe  there  is  any  other  reasonable  or 
practicable  means  of  sensibly  alleviating,  modify- 
ing, or,  it  may  be,  entirely  averting  these  evils. 


268  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

We  speak  with  something  of  hesitation  in  re- 
gard to  the  efficacy  of  this  remedy  only  because 
the  elements  of  the  problem  are  so  intricate  and 
terrible.  If  there  were  no  factor  of  race  antago- 
nism, none  of  the  terrible  prejudice  that  centuries 
of  servitude  engendered  ;  if  on  the  part  of  the 
one  race  there  were  not  the  feeling  that  it  alone 
had  the  right  to  rule,  and  on  the  part  of  the 
other  the  dull,  unspoken  conviction  that  the  col- 
ored man  has  never  received  justice  at  the  hands 
of  the  whites,  and  perhaps  never  will ;  if  there 
were  only  one  race,  no  matter  how  far  apart 
classes  or  individuals  might  stand  in  the  social 
scale ;  if  only  the  impassable  barrier  of  color  did 
not  come  between  the  discordant  elements ;  if 
love  and  marriage  might  ever  soften  the  asperities 
that  prevail ;  if  by  any  means  or  during  any 
conceivable  period  of  time  the  two  races  might 
become  one — in  that  case,  no  matter  how  great 
the  discrepancy  of  thought  or  feeling,  how  wide 
the  gulf  of  rank  or  caste,  how  bitter  the  hostility 
that  may  now  exist,  we  should  say  without  a 
moment's  hesitation  that  education,  general  in- 
telligence, universal  enlightenment,  was  not  only 
the  sole  remedy  but  would  prove  almost  an  instant 
specific  for  the  evils  which  now  impend.     Under 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  269 

-» 

such  circumstances  it  would  only  be  necessary  to 
make  the  spelling-book  the  scepter  of  national 
power  until  all  classes  clearly  and  distinctly  ap- 
preciated the  fact  that  the  individual  interest  of 
each  lay  in  the  prosperity  of  all,  to  assure  the 
continuance  of  peace  and  the  mutual  recognition 
of  the  rights  of  all.  But  alas !  those  elements 
which  constitute  the  chief  difficulties  of  the  pro- 
blem are  of  such  a  subtle  and  difficult  character 
that  the  most  exhaustive  knowledge  and  most 
painstaking  analysis  of  the  existing  forces  of  the 
society  with  which  we  are  dealing  cannot  justify 
any  positive  forecast  of  the  resultant  effect  of  any 
added  element  or  specific  influence.  There  are 
some  hypotheses  the  consideration  of  which  may 
enable  us  to  arrive  at  more  satisfactory  conclu- 
sions in  regard  to  the  probable  effect  of  a  thor- 
ough enlightenment  of  the  ignorant  masses  of 
these  States  than  we  would  be  likely  otherwise  to 
reach.  The  first  of  these  is  a  proposition  which 
probably  no  man  will  deny,  to  wit : 

I. — Intelligence  is  the  chief  est  foe  of  prejudice. 

The  intelligent  man  is  much  less  likely  to  be 
influenced  by  an  insufficient  motive  than  the 
ignorant  one.  He  is  more  likely  to  act  upon 
what  he   knows    than    upon    a    mere    unfounded 


270  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

belief  which  he  has  perhaps  caught  from  a  neigh- 
bor who  has  no  better  reason  for  entertaining  it 
than  himself.  The  intelligent  man  is  more  apt 
to  require  a  solid  and  substantial  reason  for  his 
action  than  an  ignorant  one,  and  also  more  likely 
to  be  restrained  in  its  manifestation  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  ultimate  results. 

II. —  This  being  the  case,   we  may  safely  conclude 

that  if  the  percentage  of  illiterates  among  the 

native  zvhite  people  of  the  South  had  been  for 

the  past  Jmndred  years  what  it  is  among  the 

whites  of  the  North,  instead  of  being  more 

than  five  times  as  great,  there  would  be  very 

much  less  reason  for  appreheyision  on  account 

of  the  prejudice  of  race  than  there  now  is. 

Although  this  sentiment  may  be   as  strong  or 

even  stronger  among  the  more  intelligent  of  the 

white  people  of  that  section,  it  cannot  be  doubted 

that  if  the  same  general  intelligence  had  prevailed 

among  the  masses  of  the  South  as  at  the  North, 

Slavery  would   have   been   peacefully  eradicated 

and  the  lesson  of  tolerant  coexistence  taught  to 

both  races  long  before  now. 

III. — If 'ninety-five  per  cent  of  the  freedmen  at  the 
date  of  their  emancipation  had  been  able  to 
read  and  write  with  the  facility  and  accuracy 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  271 

possessed  by  the  like  proportion  of  natives  of 
the  Northern  States,  the  history  of  the  South 
since  the  close  of  the  war  would  not  have  bee?i 
one  continued  story  of  violence,  humiliation, 
and  shame. 
It  is  only  by  such  a  violent  hypothesis  as  this 
that  we  are  able  to  realize  what  a  wonderful 
change  in  the  situation  of  affairs  might  be  accom- 
plished by  the  general .  enlightenment  of  the 
masses  of  the  South.  There  is  no  doubt  that  all 
the  failure,  shame,  and  humiliation  of  the  past 
twenty  years  of  reconstructionary  growth  has 
been,  in  the  main,  the  fruit  of  ignorance.  Had 
the  same  ratio  of  intelligence  which  prevails  at 
the  North  extended  also  to  the  people  of  the 
South  ;  had  the  colored  man  been  able  to  master 
his  political  duty,  to  understand  and  perform  the 
functions  of  citizenship,  to  detect  fraud,  and  in- 
telligently and  wisely  to  combine  in  his  own  de- 
fense, such  terms  as  "  Ku-Klux,"  "  Bull-Dozer," 
"  Rifle-Clubs,"  "  Shotgun  Policy,"  and  "  Tissue 
Ballots"  would  never  have  disgraced  the  Ameri- 
can vocabulary.  Had  the  vast  body  of  igno- 
rant whites  been  so  enlightened  as  to  be  able 
to  comprehend  the  circumstances  in  which  they 
were  placed,  the  new  relations  which  they  must 


272  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

assume  toward  the  freedmen,  the  responsibilities 
for  the  peaceful  future  that  rested  upon  them — 
had  they  been  accessible  to  reason  and  informa- 
tion upon  these  subjects,  one  of  the  chief  im- 
pulses to  violence,  and  perhaps  the  most  potent 
evil  force  which  threatens  the  future  of  that 
region,  would  have  been  obliterated.  It  was  of 
course  an  impossibility  that  such  a  state  of  affairs 
should  have  existed.  Slavery  would  long  ago 
have  been  blotted  from  our  soil  if  the  slave  had 
been  made  intelligent  or  the  non-slave-holding 
whites  of  the  South  had  been  brought  to  the  same 
average  of  intelligence  as  like  classes  at  the  North. 
The  one  great  essential  for  the  perpetuation  of 
slavery  was  ignorance.  Intelligence  and  servitude 
cannot  co-exist :  light  and  darkness  are  not  less 
antagonistic. 

IV. — Intelligence  is  essential  to  develop  the  restrain- 
ing influences  of  religious  teachi?ig. 
The  relations  of  Christianity  to  Slavery  are 
among  the  most  curious  facts  of  history.  It  is 
unquestionable  that  until  the  discovery  of  Amer- 
ica the  Christian  religion  had  been  one  that 
tended  to  liberty  and  equality.  Among  the  early 
Christians  it  had  been  the  universal  solvent  of  the 
bondman's    shackles.      No   believer  was  allowed 


Is  Education  a  Specific  ?  273 

to  hold  another  believer  in  bondage.     When  the 
era  of  awakening  came  after  the  long  slumber  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  incen- 
tives   to    discovery   was    the    conquest    of    new 
realms  and  the  conversion   of  other  races  to  the 
faith  of  the  Church.     In  return  for  this  material 
recognition  of  her  authority,  the  Church  granted 
its  blessing  and  gave  "  the  heathen  for  an  inheri- 
tance" with  lavish  profusion  to  kings  and  queens, 
navigators,  adventurers,  and  whosoever  promised 
to    extend    her   power    or   increase   her   wealth. 
Servitude   was    imposed    upon    these   subjugated 
heathen  as  a  punishment  for  unbelief,  and  per- 
haps in  some  cases  as  an  inducement  for  them  to 
espouse,  in  the  loose  and  merely  formal  manner 
of  that    day,  the   tenets    of   Christianity.     From 
this  custom    undoubtedly   sprung   the    Christian 
slavery   of  the   New  World.     The  heathen   were 
enslaved  under  the  shallow  pretense  of  Christian- 
izing and    civilizing   them   thereby.     There  is  a 
chapter  of   our   history  bearing  on    this   subject 
which  is  of  peculiar  interest,  showing  as   it  does 
in  very  sharp  relief  the  relations  between  Slavery 
and  Intelligence,  and  Christianity  and  Bondage, 
in  this  country. 

It  is  a  fact  not  generally  known  that,  at  the 


274  An  Appeal  to  C<e 


sar 


time  of  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  colo- 
nies, the  idea  was  widely  prevalent  in  the  Anglican 
Church,  as  well  as  among  the  leading  sects  of  dis- 
senters, that  while  it  was  no  sin  to  enslave  an 
unbeliever,  it  was  contrary  to  the  teachings  of 
Christianity  to  hold  a  brother-Christian  in  bond- 
age. In  1696  this  question  was  brought  before 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench  (Chamberlain  v.  Her- 
vey,  5  Modern  Reports);  and  though  the  case 
went  off  on  a  decision  as  to  the  form  of  the  ac- 
tion, so  that  there  was  no  decision  upon  the 
merits,  yet  the  grounds  on  which  it  was  argued  by 
counsel  give  the  general  belief  of  that  day,  and 
the  reasons  therefor.  "  Being  baptized  accord- 
ing to  the  use  of  the  Church,"  argued  the  coun- 
sel, "  the  slave  is  thereby  made  a  Christian, 
and  Christianity  is  inconsistent  with  slavery. 
When  the  popish  religion  was  first  established 
[in  England],  as  appears  by  Littleton,  if  a  villein 
entered  into  religion,  and  was  professed,  as  they 
called  it,  the  lord  could  not  seize  him  ;  and  the 
reason  there  given  is  because  he  was  dead  in 
the  law,  and  if  the  lord  might  take  him  out  of 
his  cloister,  then  he  could  not  live  according  to 
his  religion.  The  like  reason  may  now  be  given. 
Baptism  having  been  incorporated  into  the  laws 


Is  Education  a  Specific? 


/o 


of  the  land,  if  the  duties  which  arise  thereby  can- 
not be  performed  in  a  state  of  servitude,  the  bap- 
tism must  be  a  manumission.  That  such  duties 
cannot  be  performed  is  plain,  for  the  persons  bap- 
tized are  enjoined  by  several  acts  of  Parliament 
to  come  to  church.  But  if  the  lord  hath  abso- 
lute control  over  him,  then  he  might  send  him  far 
enough  from  those  duties."  He  instances  also 
the  fact  that  "  the  Turks  do  not  make  slaves  of 
those  of  their  own  religion;  and  if  a  Christian  be 
taken  captive  in  war,  yet  if  he  renounce  Christian- 
ity and  turn  Mahometan,  he  doth  thereby  obtain  his 
freedom." 

This  curious  argument  is  given  both  because 
of  the  quaint  logic  which  underlies  it,  and  as  a 
fair  statement  of  the  view  of  Christian  duty 
which  even  at  that  early  day  for  a  time  bade  fair 
to  strangle  slavery  in  its  incipiency.  Looking 
back  upon  its  history  now,  it  would  seem  almost 
impossible  that  there  should  be  an  American 
Christian  who  does  not  feel  a  pang  of  regret  that 
this  humane  and  righteous  view  did  not  then  uni- 
versally prevail,  l^ot  only  the  blood  and  sorrow 
which  the  nation  has  already  known,  but  the 
danger  that  now  impends  would  then  have  been 
unknown, — they  might  even  have  appeared  to  this 


276  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

generation  as  things  impossible  to  have  happened 
under  any  circumstances. 

On  the  contrary,  it  was  at  once  declared  by 
statutory  enactment  in  the  various  colonies  that 
this  view  of  Christianity  was  unauthorized,  incor- 
rect, and  unlawful. 

A  law  of  Maryland  adopted  in  1692,  according 
to  the  "  Plantation  Laws"  published  in  London 
in  1705,  provided  as  follows: 

"  When  any  negro  or  slave,  being  in  bondage, 
shall  become  a  Christian  and  receive  the  sacra- 
ment of  baptism,  the  same  shall  not  nor  ought 
to  be  deemed,  adjudged,  or  construed  to  be  a 
manumission  or  freeing  of  any  such  negro  or 
slave  or  his  or  her  issue  from  their  servitude  or 
bondage,  but  they  shall  hereafter  at  all  times  re- 
main in  servitude  and  bondage  as  before  their 
baptism,  any  opinion  or  matter  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding/' 

Virginia  in  1705  passed  a  law  of  similar  char- 
acter, as  follows : 

"  It  is  hereby  enacted  and  declared  that  the 
baptism  of  slaves  does  not  exempt  them  from 
bondage." 

South  Carolina  in  1712  enacted  and  declared  a 
law    to    the    same    effect,    but    most    curiously 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  277 

worded,  making  it  "  lawful  for  a  negro  or  Indian 
slave,  or  any  other  slave,  to  receive  and  profess 
the  Christian  faith  and  to  be  therein  baptized," 
and  providing  that  thereby  no  slave  shall  be 
deemed  to  be  manumitted. 

Despite  these  enactments  there  still  remained, 
especially  in  the  mother-country,  a  very  strong 
sentiment  in  the  minds  of  leading  churchmen, 
not  only  against  slavery  in  the  abstract,  but  espe- 
cially in  opposition  to  it  as  a  repressive  influence 
upon  intelligence  and  genuine  Christian  liberty. 
Archbishop  Seeker,  in  1741,  recommended  "the 
employment  of  young  negroes,  prudently  chosen, 
to  teach"  among  the  slaves.  In  1744  Dr.  Bear- 
croft,  in  an  address  before  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts, 
speaking  of  what  the  society  had  done  since  its 
previous  session,  said : 

"  The  society  have  lately  fallen  upon  a  happy 
expedient  by  the  purchase  of  two  young  negroes, 
whom  they  have  qualified,  by  a  thorough  instruc- 
tion in  the  principles  of  Christianity  and  by  teach- 
ing them  to  read  well,  to  become  schoolmasters 
to  their  fellow-negroes.  The  project  is  but  of 
yesterday,  but  one  school  is  actually  opened  at 
Charles   Town    in    South    Carolina,    which    hath 


278  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

more  than  sixty  young  negroes  under  instruction 
and  will  annually  send  out  between  thirty  and 
forty  of  them  well  instructed  in  religion  and 
capable  of  reading  their  Bibles,  who  may  carry 
home  and  diffuse  the  same  knowledge  which 
they  shall  have  been  taught  among  their  poor 
relations  and  fellow-slaves.  And  in  time  schools 
will  be  opened  in  other  places  and  in  other  colo- 
nies to  teach  them  to  believe  in  the  Son  of  God 
who  shall  make  them  free." 

Hardly  any  more  pathetic  picture  can  be  pre- 
sented to  the  minds  of  the  thoughtful  Christian 
of  to-day  than  this  quaint  and  humble  effort  to 
spread  Christianity  and  intelligence  at  the  same 
time  among  the  slaves  of  the  United  States. 
How  curious  it  seems  to  think  that  this  little 
company  of  god-fearing  men  met  in  the  Capital 
of  Great  Britain,  seeking  not  only  to  extend  the 
knowledge  of  religion  but  all  the  beneficent  in- 
fluences which  attend  true  liberty,  purchasing  as 
one  of  their  instrumentalities  two  young  slaves, 
teaching  those  slaves  not  only  the  principles  of 
religion  but  the  rudiments  of  an  English  educa- 
tion, and  sending  them  forth  among  the  slaves 
upon  the  plantations  of  the  South  in  order  that 
their   friends   and    fellow-bondmen    might    learn 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  279 

from  them  the  knowledge  which  maketh  free ! 
How  terrible  is  the  contrast  between  this  effort 
to  lift  up  the  down-trodden  and  the  oppressed, 
and  those  fearful  laws  which  a  century  afterward, 
in  the  glare  of  Christian  light,  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  were  placed  upon  the  statute- 
books  of  these  States  !  We  need  quote  but  one 
of  them,  the  statute  of  the  proudest  of  the  subor- 
dinate republics  whose  future  we  are  considering, 
and  the  very  one  in  which  this  early  Christianiz- 
ing effort  was  planted — South  Carolina.  This  is 
the  language  of  her  law  in  1834  : 

"  If  any  person  shall  hereafter  teach  any  slave 
to  read  or  write,  or  cause  or  procure  any  slave  to 
be  taught  to  read  or  write,  such  person,  if  a  free 
white  person,  shall  be  fined  not  exceeding  one 
hundred  dollars  for  each  offense  and  imprison- 
ment not  less  than  six  months;  or,  if  a  free  per- 
son of  color,  shall  be  whipped  not  exceeding 
fifty  lashes  and  fined  not  exceeding  fifty  dol- 
lars ;  and  if  a  slave,  to  be  whipped  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  court  not  exceeding  fifty  lashes ; 
the  informer  to  be  entitled  to  one-half  the  fine, 
and  to  be  a  competent  witness.  And  if  any  free 
person  of  color  or  slave  shall  keep  any  school  or 
other  place  of  instruction  for  teaching  any  slave 


2  So  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

or  free  person  of  color,  he  shall  be  liable  to  the 
same  penalties  prescribed  by  this  act  on  free  per- 
sons of  color  and  slaves  for  teaching  slaves  to 
write." 

How  .terrible  in  the  light  of  to-day  are  the 
words  of  this  barbarous  statute  !  It  was  not  sin- 
gular in  its  refinement  of  cruelty.  In  every 
Southern  State  its  equivalent  was  enacted.  Our 
nineteenth- century  Christianity  denied  to  the 
slaves  who  thirsted  for  its  sweets  the  knowl- 
edge which  the  Christians  of  an  earlier  day 
had  sought  with  humble  zeal  to  induce  them  to 
receive. 

We  know  what  followed.  The  statute  was 
blotted  out  with  blood.  Suffering  and  woe  fol- 
lowed in  the  path  of  oppression.  Even  now  a 
fruit  of  peril  impends  which  has  its  root  in  the 
great  wrong;  done  not  to  the  slave  alone  but  to 
humanity.  Time  avenges  wrongs  which  men 
forget.  The  cramped  intelligence  of  the  former 
slave  and  the  distorted  instincts  of  the  former 
masters  are  the  instrumentalities  by  which  repa- 
ration for  the  past  will  be  ultimately  enforced 
should  the  Nation  refuse  to  note  the  signs  of  peril 
in  its  path. 

Who  that  looks  back  upon  these  strange  relics 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  281 

of  the  past  can  restrain  a  wish  that  the  earlier 
Christian  sentiment  had  prevailed  over  its  subse- 
quent statutory  form  ?  The  common  law  that 
obtains  in  the  forum  of  conscience  is  very  rarely 
amended  with  advantage,  whether  by  creed  or 
statute.  We  speak  of  the  past  as  dead.  Fortu- 
nately or  unfortunately,  as  the  case  may  be,  it 
cannot  die.  Time's  eternal  repetend  of  Yester- 
day, To-day,  and  To-morrow  can  never  be  broken. 
To-day  is  as  Yesterday  made  it,  and  To-morrow 
will  be  shaped  by  To-day.  It  may  be  that  the 
work  of  the  purchased  colporteurs  —  the  two 
young  slaves  whose  task  was  to  bear  not  only 
God's  Word  but  the  seeds  of  knowledge  also  to 
their  fellow-bondmen — it  may  be  that  this  work, 
however  widely  extended  and  carefully  nurtured, 
might  have  proved  insufficient  to  avert  the  storm 
of  war  that  burst  upon  our  Yesterday.  It  may 
be  that  the  tender  Christian  spirit  that  deemed  it 
sin  to  hold  a  believer  in  bondage,  even  if  it  had 
become  universal,  would  not  have  sufficed  to  knit 
the  races  in  such  close  affiliation  as  to  render  our 
To-morrow  bright  and  peaceful.  Yet  it  would 
seem  hardly  possible  that  any  one  who  looks 
backward  through  the  lurid  glare  of  a  recent  past 
to  that  early  day  when  two  antipodal  ideas  strug- 


282  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

gled  for  the  direction  of  a  people's  destiny  could 
do  otherwise  than  wish  that  the  earlier  Christi- 
anity had  overpowered  and  made  impossible  the 
later.  It  was  the  excuse  and  justification  which 
slavery  most  boastingly  flaunted  in  the  faces  of 
its  Christian  opponents  that  it  had  done  more 
than  all  other  agencies  to  Christianize  the  earth. 
While  other  forces  numbered  their  converts  by 
the  score,  it  counted  its  redeemed  heathen  by  the 
million.  It  claimed  pre-eminence  as  a  wholesale 
religious  agency,  and  pointed  with  exultation  to 
the  boisterous  devotion  of  its  dusky  converts. 
Ah,  well  might  it  have  been  for  us  to-day  if  the 
idea  of  the  elder  days  had  prevailed  and  along 
with  the  belief  in  Christian  truth  we  had  given,  to 
the  heathen  we  had  transplanted  to  our  shores, 
that  knowledge  which  we  count  the  first  essential 
of  our  own  belief ! 

We  cannot  tell  all  its  probable  effect ;  but  there 
can  hardly  be  one  honest  heart  who  can  for  a 
moment  doubt  that  general  intelligence  of  the 
masses  would  have  greatly  lessened,  even  if  it 
had  not  entirely  averted,  the  evil,  the  shame  and 
humiliation  of  the  recent  years. 

But  it  may  be  said  that,  even  admitting  this,  it 
does   not  prove  that  the  work   of   education,  so 


Is  Education  a  Specific  ?  283 

long  neglected,  now  begun,  would  avert  or  even 
greatly  alleviate  the  dangers  which  threaten.  It 
is  by  no  means  certain  that,  because  two  races 
might  have  been  so  shaped  and  molded  by  the 
influences  of  centuries  as  to  dwell  together  there- 
after in  harmony,  they  can,  when  those  influences 
have  been  antagonistic,  be  suddenly  lifted  to  a 
plane  of  equality  and  by  the  mere  fact  of  intelli- 
gence be  restrained  from  harmful  demonstrations 
toward  each  other.  All  this  is  very  true  ;  and  all 
the  more  pitiful  it  is  to  know  that,  when  time  in 
the  procession  of  events  has  shown  the  evil  and 
pointed  out  what  might  have  constituted  a  pre- 
ventive thereof,  we  are  never  sure  that  the  once 
possible  preventive  may  constitute  an  actual  cure. 
Remedies  for  human  ills  act  slowly.  Causes  that 
shape  humanity  must  have  much  time  to  act. 
No  man  is  changed  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye. 
The  time  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave  is  too 
short  for  the  reconstruction  of  a  human  soul. 
As  men  are  born,  in  most  essentials  so  they  die. 
Little  by  little  change  may  come.  The  father 
lifts  the  son  upon  his  shoulders  and  starts  him  in 
the  race  of  life  upon  the  level  of  his  own  highest 
growth.  Generations  must  come  and  go  before 
fixed   attributes  can  be   changed.     The   spots  of 


284.  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  leopard  are  hardly  more  ineradicable  than 
types  of  character.  The  Southern  man,  black 
or  white,  is  not  likely  to  be  greatly  different 
to-morrow  from  what  he  was  yesterday.  Gen- 
erations may  modify ;  years  can  only  restrain. 
The  question  is  not  whether  education,  begun  to- 
day and  carried  on  however  vigorously  and  suc- 
cessfully by  the  most  approved  agencies,  would 
change  the  characteristics  of  to-day's  masses. 
Not  at  all.  The  question  is  whether  it  woJld  so 
act  upon  them  as  they  are,  would  so  enlighten 
and  inform  their  minds,  as  to  convince  them  of 
the  mutual  danger,  peril,  disaster,  that  must  at- 
tend continued  oppression  or  sudden  uprising. 
We  cannot  expect  to  make  intelligence  instantly 
effective  in  the  elevation  of  individual  citizenship 
or  the  exercise  of  collective  power.  Little  by 
little  that  change  must  come. 

The  question  for  us  to  decide  is  whether  it 
will  ever  come  at  all  except  through  the  chan- 
nel of  universal  intelligence ;  and  whether  the 
power  of  enlightenment  can  at  once  be  so  ap- 
plied and  exercise  such  an  influence  upon  the 
characteristics  of  classes  and  individuals  as  to 
make  it  a  positive  force  and  a  probably  effective 
one  in  the   mitigation    of    evils   which   seem  to 


Is  Education  a  Specific?  285 

promise  disaster.  There  may  be  some  who 
doubt  the  efficacy  of  this  course ;  but  there 
can  hardly  be  one  who  does  not  believe  that 
something  needs  to  be  done,  and  to  be  done 
very  quickly,  in  regard  to  this  most  important 
subject.  It  may  not  be  possible  to  avert  all  evil, 
but  no  effort  should  be  spared  to  lessen  it  as 
much  as  we  may. 


A  Pharmacopoeia. 


"O  UT  are  there  any  other  remedies  which  give 
■^  promise  of  a  cure?  If  there  are,  it  is  need- 
less to  urge  so  mild  and  inglorious  a  specific. 
Mankind  is  not  inclined  to  adopt  quiet,  peaceful 
remedies.  The  spelling-book  has  none  of  the 
charm  that  attends  the  glitter  of  the  bayonet. 
Humanity  prefers  always  the  scalpel  rather  than 
the  poultice.  It  would  rather  shed  blood  than 
furnish  food.  It  relishes  better  the  scourging  of 
evil  than  the  curing  of  disease.  It  gloats  upon 
the  gallows  and  the  jail,  but  groans  beneath  the 


A  Phar??iacopceia.  287 

burden  of  the  hospital  and  is  a  natural  enemy  of 
disinfection.  As  between  a  school-house  and  a 
fortress,  a  people  is  always  prone  to  choose  the 
garrison. 

The  War  of  Rebellion  cost  the  North  alone  fif- 
teen million  dollars  a  week.  It  cost  the  Confede- 
rates, counting  in  the  results,  not  less  than  twenty 
millions  a  week!  Either  of  these  weekly  sums 
would  be  sufficient,  by  supplementing  the  volun- 
tary exertions  of  individuals  and  communities,  to 
establish  and  maintain  an  efficient  system  of  in- 
struction which  would  put  the  means  of  intelli- 
gence before  every  illiterate  in  the  South  for  a 
year.  In  other  worlds,  a  week  of  war  costs  more 
than  a  year  of  education.  Yet  if  the  end  could 
be  achieved  by  war,  it  is  probable  that  a  majority 
of  all  classes  would  prefer  the  sword  to  the  spell- 
ing-book. It  is  so  much  easier  to  let  events  flow 
along  in  their  own  uninterrupted  course  until  they 
overwhelm  the  obstacles  and  "  all  the  world  is  in 
a  sea."  We  have  no  word  of  commendation  for 
the  patience  which  unties  a  Gordian  knot :  but  the 
impetuous  soul  that  cuts  it  with  the  sword  is 
dubbed  a  hero. 

Many  remedies  have  been  suggested  for  the  ills 
above  depicted.      Some  have   been  already  con- 


288  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

sidered.  The  elements  of  others  have  been  so 
thoroughly  analyzed  that  they  need  no  further 
discussion.  We  name  the  chief  ones  here  in  order 
that  no  reader  may  suppose  that  we  have  forgot- 
ten or  purposely  omitted  any.  The  following  list 
may  not  embrace  all  that  have  been  devised,  but 
it  contains  at  least  the  chief  reasons  that  have 
been  set  up  for  avoiding  at  the  same  time  a  plain 
duty  and  a  manifest  danger. 

I. —  The   first  vf  these   is   to   deprive   the   illiter- 
ate voters  of  the  right  of  suffrage  in  these 
States. 
There  are  two  objections  to  this.     First,  it  can- 
not be  done  by  honest  means.       No  population 
can  be  found  that,  having  once  exercised  power 
or  had  the  legal  right  to  do  so,  will  disfranchise 
from  forty  five  to  fifty-seven  percent  of  itself,  at 
a  fair  and  free  election.     Second,  there  is  the  fur- 
ther objection  that  this  would  not  cure  the  evil 
at  all,  but  would  only  put  it  off  until  like  a  darnmed- 
up  river  it  overflowed   the   obstructions  and  be- 
came more  unmanageable  than  before. 
II.— It  has  been  proposed  to  remove  the  negroes  to 
Africa  a?id colonize  them  there. 
It  is  the  old  Colonization  Society  scheme,  which 
was  invented  to  flank  the  Abolitionists  on  the  one 


A  Pharmacopoeia.  289 

hand  and  the  slave  holders  on  the  other.  It  lacks 
the  element  of  feasibility.  The  negroes  are  not 
inclined  to  go,  and  no  one  has  the  right  to  compel 
them  to  emigrate.  As  a  colored  man  has  pithily 
written  :  *  "  The  black  people  of  this  country  are 
Americans,  not  Africans ;  and  any  wholesale  ex- 
patriation of  them  is  impossible."  It  has  another 
element  which  stamps  it  as  impracticable.  Sixty 
years  ago  Henry  Clay  estimated  that  it  would  cost 
one  hundred  dollars  apiece  to  take  the  blacks 
from  the  plantation  to  the  west  coast  of  Africa. 
(That  was  the  cheapest  the  society  could  do  it,  at 
least.)  To  take  them  there,  secure  them  from 
starvation  a  year,  or  give  them  a  fair  show  for 
life,  would  cost  at  least  two  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars each.  So  the  moving  of  them  alone,  if  they 
were  willing  to  go,  would  cost  more  than  Six 
Hundred  Millions  of  Dollars — enough  to  educate 
thoroughly  tJiree  generations  during  their  entire 
school-ages  ! 

III. — //  has  been  suggested  that  some  specific  West- 
ern territory  be  set  apart  for  the  blacks,  a?id 
held  sacred  to  their  use  and  behoof. 

*  T.  Thomas  Fortune,  Editor  of  the  New  York  Globe,  in  his 
recent  book,  "  Black  and  White  :  Land,  Labor,  and  Politics  in 
the  South"     Fords,  Howard,  &  Hulbert.  New  York. 


290  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

Objections:  (1)  We  have  no  such  territory. 
(2)  If  we  had,  it  would  require  a  soldier  for 
every  ten  rods  of  boundary,  to  keep  the  blacks  in 
and  the  whites  out.  (3)  It  cost  six  million  dol- 
lars to  move  a  few  thousand  Seminoles  from 
Florida  across  the  Mississippi, — and  half  of  them 
were  left  behind  at  that.  The  colored  people 
could  no  more  be  uprooted  from  the  States  we 
have  named  than  the  mountains  can  be  moved 
from  their  bases. 

IV. —  The  same  ideas  have  been  advanced  both  as  to 
volmitary  and  compulsory  emigration  to   the 
island  of  Cuba  or    the  territory  of  Mexico, 
and  the  acquisition  of  one  or  both  urged  on 
that  account. 
The  same  objections  prevail  against  this  notion 
as  against  all  others  based  on  the  voluntary  or  en- 
forced migration    of  the    negro,  with  the   added 
probability  of  an  increased  migration  of  whites  to 
the  newly  acquired  territory  and  a  possible  influx 
of  blacks  therefrom. 

V. — It  is  still  proposed  to  split  up  the  white  and 
black  voters  of  the  South  into  two  parties  each 
of  which  shall  have  about  the  same  proportion 
of  voters  of  each  race  working  together  in 
peaceful  accord  to  secure  or  defeat  some  mea- 


A  Pharmacopoeia.  291 

sure  dear  to  the  hearts  of  each.     Just  now 
this  measure  is  said  to  be  a  protective  tar- 

iff- 
The  idea  is  as  reasonable  as  an  attempt  to  cut 
a  diamond  with  glass  or  to  batter  down  Gibraltar 
with  green  peas.  The  sentiment  that  produces 
the  separation  of  the  races  and  their  crystalliza- 
tion into  distinct  bodies  is  stronger  than  any- 
other  sentiment  that  can  animate  humanity  ex- 
cept the  religious. 

VI. — //  is  believed  by  many  that  this  very  fact  of 
identity  of  religious  belief  will  so  act  upon  the 
minds  and  consciences  of  both  races  as  to  pre- 
vent any  serious  encroachment  upon  the  rights 
of  either ;    that    it  will  gradually  tend   to 
ameliorate  the  se?itimeuts  of  each  tozuard  the 
other  until  peace  and  harmony  and  entire  re- 
spect for  each  otJiers  rights  shall  prevail. 
Fanaticism  is  unquestionably  the  most  potent 
influence  that  can  affect  humanity.     As  a  rule  it 
may  be  said  that  community  of  belief  obliterates 
all  differences.     In  order  to  have  this  effect,  how- 
ever, such  community  of  belief  must  be  accom- 
panied by  habitual  association    in   religious    acts 
and  observances,  and  among  Christians   it   is  fur- 
ther limited' by  the  distinctions  of  sect.      While 


292  An   Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Christianity  is  especially  noted  as  a  religion  incul- 
cating the  broadest  charity  toward  all  men,  it  is, 
perhaps  for  that  very  reason,  the  least  affected  by 
that  narrower  and  more  intense  devotion  that  in 
other  cases  makes  fanaticism  the  ready  solvent  of 
all  other  sentiments  and  antipathies.  With 
Christians,  in  order  to  awaken  this  feeling  of  in- 
tense and  active  confraternity  which  shall  make 
each  and  every  believer  the  stanch  and  active 
champion  and  guardian  of  the  other's  rights,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  common  faith  should  be  at- 
tacked by  an  extraneous  force.  If  Christianity 
were  in  peril  from  some  external  force  which  made 
war  upon  Christians  as  such,  the  whites  and  blacks 
of  the  South  would  no  doubt  stand  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  its  defense.  Without  this  we  have 
seen  that  the  mere  profession  of  a  common  faith 
is  insufficient  to  overcome  or  modify  the  preju- 
dice of  race  and,  under  existing  circumstances, 
tends  rather  to  their  isolation  than  their  peace- 
ful and  harmonious  union. 
VII. — Immigration. — All  possible  phases  of  this 

remedy  have  been  considered. 
VIII.— The  stimulation  of  the  white  and  the  neg- 
lect of  the  colored  race  in  these  States. 
It   is   believed   by  some  who    have    given  the 


A  Pharmacopoeia.  293 

situation  much  study  that  the  true  remedy  for 
the  apprehended  evil  is,  not  to  encourage  or 
stimulate  the  colored  man,  but  to  leave  him 
where  he  is,  to  struggle  slowly  and  tediously  up- 
ward to  the  fullness  of  liberty.  It  is  claimed 
that  only  in  this  manner  can  he  hope  to  develop 
in  time  into  an  efficient  and  reliable  factor  of  our 
national  life.  It  is  argued  by  those  who  accept 
this  theory  that  the  supremacy  of  the  white  race 
during  this  transition-period  through  which  the 
black  must  pass  may  be  maintained  by  promot- 
ing new  industries  and  developing  new  lines  of 
activity  which  shall  be  open  only  to  the  whites. 
It  is  not  claimed  that  this  theory  offers  an 
actual  remedy,  but  only  that  it  suggests  a 
method  for  maintaining  the  existing  status  of 
affairs  for  an  indefinite  period.  It  is  a  favorite 
idea  with  certain  classes  of  Southern  speculators. 
It  has  certain  defects  which  seem  to  us  insur- 
mountable: (1)  The  masses  of  the  Southern 
whites  are  not  so  easily  stimulated  by  new  oppor- 
tunities for  labor.  (2)  The  colored  man  will  out- 
work and  underwork  the  Southern  white  man  in 
new  fields  of  manual  labor  as  well  as  in  the  old 
ones.  (3)  It  is  not  easy  to  "  boycott"  the  great- 
er moiety  of  the  laborers   of  a  community.     (4) 


294  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

Capital   will  incline  to  the    employment    of   the 
cheapest  labor. 

IX. —  The   remedy  most  generally  favored  by   the 
Southern  whites    is   embraced  in  the   oft-re- 
peated assertion    that    the   white  people   of 
those  States    "  intend  to  keep  the  niggers  in 
their  place." 
This  simply  means  the    exercise  of   so  much 
force  as  may  be  necessary,  legally  or  illegally,  to 
keep  the  colored  man  from  asserting  his  power  as 
a  political  entity.     It  is  a  good  enough  remedy 
from    the    standpoint    of    the   dominant  race   as 
long  as  the  power  remains  to  carry  it  into  effect. 
It  is  based  on  the  principle  of  fastening  down  the 
safety-valve    and   increasing  the  head  of   steam. 
It  works  all  right  until  the  crisis  comes.     Until 
the     explosion    actually    takes    place     there    is 
nothing   in    the   working    of    the   machinery   to 
indicate  unusual  peril.     After  the  explosion  the 
world  wonders  at  the  reckless  folly  which  could 
trifle  with    forces    that    only  become  dangerous 
because  they  are  pent  within  too  narrow  bounds. 
A  modification   of  this  theory  is   that  idea  which 
so  largely  prevails  throughout  the  South, — arising 
no  doubt    from    the    unexpected    success  which 
attended  the  Ku-Klux  revolution, — that  the  ter- 


A  Pharmacopceia.  295 

ror  of  annihilation,  aroused  by  the  show  of  force, 
is  sufficient  to  restrain  for  an  indefinite  period 
any  possible  numerical  majority  of  the  colored 
race.  Those  who  entertain  this  theory  believe 
that  "  an  example"  now  and  then  is  all  that  is 
necessary  to  keep  the  colored  people  in  their 
present  relation  of  semi-subjection  to  the  domi- 
nant race. 

"  It  don't  need  much  to  keep  them  all  right," 
was  the  reply  which  a  Southern  planter  gave  to 
an  inquiry  as  to  what  would  be  the  outcome  of 
the  present  situation.  "  The  railroads  and  the 
telegraphs  and  the  newspapers  do  the  greater 
part  of  it.  If  the  niggers  get  a  little  too  sassy  in 
a  Mississippi  or  Virginia  town  so  that  the  white 
people  cannot  well  stand  it  any  longer,  all  we 
have  to  do  is  to  stir  up  a  little  row,  rub  a  few  of 
them  out,  and  then  see  that  the  news  of  it  is  well 
circulated  among  the  rest  of  them.  It  seems 
queer,  but  I  have  no  sort  of  doubt  but  that  little 
trouble  up  at  Danville  saved  us  perhaps  a  hundred 
more  such,  up  and  down  the  country.  All  we 
had  to  do  was  just  to  read  an  account  of  that  to 
the  niggers  and  give  them  to  understand  that  it 
was  just  what  would  happen  here  if  they  didn't 
behave.     That    settled  it.     Of    course  there  will 


296  A?i  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

have  to  be  more  or  less  of  this  thing,  from  time 
to  time,  and  it  is  just  possible  that  the  time  may 
come  when  it  cannot  be  kept  up  any  longer.  If 
it  does,  I  don't  see  what  else  we  can  do  only  just 
kill  a  few  thousand  or  a  million  of  them — as 
many  as  is  necessary  in  order  to  keep  them 
straight,  so  that  we  can  get  along  with  them  and 
have  peace  and  prosperity  and  good  government 
in  the  States." 

This  was  a  frank  and  honest  statement  of  an 
honorable  man  who  is  very  far  from  entertaining 
any  personal  antipathy  against  the  colored  race, 
and  who  is  entirely  incapable  of  anything  like 
unnecessary  brutality.  He  sees  and  acknowl- 
edges to  himself  the  inherent  antagonism  of  the 
races.  He  knows  the  futility  of  the  thousand  and 
one  speculative  remedies  which  mere  theorists 
have  put  forth,  but  does  not  at  all  believe  in  the 
capacity  of  the  colored  man  at  any  time  to  dis- 
charge the  responsibilities  and  duties  of  a  self- 
directing  political  factor.  He  believes  that  the 
whites  have  the  sole  right  to  rule ;  that  they  must 
rule  and  will  rule,  without  regard  to  the  senti- 
ments or  wishes  of  the  colored  people,  whether 
they  constitute  a  majority  or  not.  As  between 
different  factions  of  white  men  he  acknowledges 


A  Pharmacopoeia.  297 

the  rule  of  the  majority  with  the  utmost  readi- 
ness ;  but  whenever  the  colored  man  constitutes 
any  considerable  element  of  what  he  is  asked  to 
recognize  as  a  majority,  he  refuses  to  admit  the 
binding  force  of  the  obligation,  and  feels  perfectly 
justified  in  preventing  such  a  result  by  any 
means,  lawful  or  unlawful,  within  his  power.  He 
is  the  representative  of  by  far  the  larger  class 
among  the  whites  of  the  South.  An  honest, 
sturdy,  resolute  man,  to  whom  the  maintenance 
of  what  he  deems  good  government  (that  is,  a 
government  entirely  controlled  by  those  who 
agree  with  him  in  regard  to  the  relations,  duties, 
and  legitimate  privileges  of  the  colored  race)  is 
an  object  of  prime  importance.  He  is  a  good 
citizen  according  to  what  he  esteems  the  duties 
of  the  citizen.  He  is  a  law-abiding  man,  just  so 
far  as  he  believes  the  law  has  a  right  to  control 
and  direct  his  action.  Whenever  he  conceives 
the  law  to  be  defective  or  insufficient,  he  does 
not  hesitate  for  a  moment  to  supplement  it  with 
his  own  sense  of  justice  and  his  own  ideas  of 
what  the  public  weal  demands.  The  great  objec- 
tion to  this  theory  is  that  no  one  can  determine 
exactly  how  much  terrorism,  fraud,  or  violence 
may  be  requisite  to  maintain   the  domination  of 


298  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  white  race  or  to  prevent  the  colored  race 
from  attempting  to  assert  in  similar  unlawful 
methods  their  ideas  of  justice  and  right.  This 
doctrine  is  likely  at  any  time  to  become  not  only 
a  very  costly  but  a  very  troublesome  remedy.  A 
government  which  for  any  considerable  time 
winks  at  the  subversion  of  law  and  permits  the 
rights  of  any  class  to  be  ignored  by  another  is 
destined,  sooner  or  later,  to  pay  very  dearly  for 
its  weakness.  That  "  species  of  wild  justice" 
which  has  been  so  often  urged  in  excuse  of  acts 
of  violence  committed  upon  the  colored  race  of 
the  South,  or  inflicted  upon  those  associated  with 
them  in  political  conviction,  may  sometimes 
justify  its  name,  but  is  far  more  likely  to  prove 
a  subversion  of  all  justice  and  a  species  of  oppres- 
sion that  is  all  the  more  dangerous  because  of 
the  sincerity  of  purpose  of  those  engaged  in  it. 

The  objections  to  this  idea  naturally  shape 
themselves  into  two  inquiries:  (1)  Is  it  any  rem- 
edy at  all  for  the  disease,  or  is  it  merely  repres- 
sive in  its  character,  serving  only  to  hold  the  evil 
in  abeyance  for  a  time  and  rendering  it  all  the 
more  terrible  when  it  shall  finally  break  its  bonds? 
(2)  How  long  can  the  American  people  afford  to 
have  the  law  of  the  land  subverted  by  the  forci- 


A  Pharmacopoeia.  299 

ble   subjection    of    one    race    to    the   will    of    an- 
other? 

In  other  words,  the  great  question  which  this 
theory  presents  is,  How  long  can  the  American 
people  afford  to  have  the  basis-principle  upon 
which  our  Government  rests,  of  the  peaceable  and 
legitimate  exercise  of  power  by  the  majority, 
subverted  by  fraud  or  violence,  which  is  rendered 
effective  simply  by  the  ignorance  and  consequent 
weakness  of  the  lawfully  constituted  majority? 
Mob-law  may  be  better  than  no  law.  Crime  may 
sometimes  seem  to  justify  a  community  in  sup- 
plementing the  enginery  of  the  law  by  its  own 
methods  of  irregular  but  terrible  retribution. 
Can  the  American  people  afford  to  admit  that  in 
the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  its 
laws  not  only  are  insufficient  but  may  be  violated 
with  impunity  in  one  third  of  our  territory  ?  If 
so,  then  the  best  thing  that  can  be  done  is  to 
repeal  all  laws  or  constitutional  provisions  pre- 
tending to  confer  right  or  privilege  upon  the 
colored  man  and  remit  him  again  to  a  state  of 
dependence  upon  the  whites  of  the  South,  to  be 
by  them  nurtured,  protected,  and  allowed  to  de- 
velop as  they  may  see  fit,  slowly  and  gradually 
as  he  did  with  the  incubus  of  slavery  about  his 


300  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

neck.  If  the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule  is  to 
be  subverted  at  the  will  of  a  minority  simply 
because  it  is  a  white  minority,  then  the  action  of 
the  Government  in  granting  liberty  and  power  to 
the  freedman  was  simply  a  mockery  which  justice 
and  mercy  alike  demand  should  be  at  once  re- 
scinded. In  that  case,  instead  of  troubling  our- 
selves to  promote  the  intelligence  of  the  colored 
people,  it  would  unquestionably  be  an  act  of  wis- 
dom and  sound  policy  to  revert  again  to  the 
doctrines  of  the  slave-era  and  by  statute  exclude 
the  free  man  of  color  from  all  opportunity  to 
obtain  knowledge. 

This  might  not  cure  the  evil,  but  it  would  per- 
haps put  it  off  five  or  ten  years:  and  whatever  de- 
lays the  access  of  evil  our  characteristic  American 
sentiment  is  apt  to  consider  wise  statesmanship 
and  sound  policy. 


U/// 


Who    Shall    Apply    the 
Remedy? 

11  A '  LL  the  Constitutional  power  of  the  Nation 
and  of  the  States,  and  all  the  volunteer 
forces  of  the  people,  should  be  summoned  to  meet 
this  danger  by  the  strong  influence  of  Universal 
Education." — Garfield's  Inaugural  Address. 

"  The  Volunteer  Forces  of  the  People." 
I.   The  Beneficiaries. — Those  classes  which  most 
need  the  influence  of  this  remedy  are  the  least 
able  to  secure  its  benefits  for  themselves.     There 


302  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

are  probably  to-day  in  the  States  of  the  South 
tzvo  millions  of  white  illiterates  and  four  millions 
of  colored  illiterates.  Of  these  six  millions  it  is 
not  probable  that  one-sixth,  even  if  the  oppor- 
tunity for  obtaining  an  education  by  their  in- 
dividual exertions  were  open  to  them,  could 
reasonably  be  expected  to  accomplish  such  a  task. 
They  are  poor  not  in  the  sense  that  they  are 
likely  to  suffer  want,  nor  in  the  sense  that  they 
may  be  said  to  require  extraneous  aid  for  them- 
selves or  their  families,  but  in  the  sense  that  they 
have  nothing,  and  can  acquire  nothing,  whereby 
they  might  obtain  books  and  pay  the  tuition 
necessary  to  obtain  even  the  rudiments  of  edu- 
cation. Two-thirds  of  these,  it  will  be  noted,  are 
of  the  colored  race.  Thousands  upon  thousands 
of  them  probably  never  had  so  much  as  ten  dol- 
lars at  a  time  in  their  whole  lives.  They  earn 
their  daily  bread  ;  their  employers  furnish  weekly 
rations  ;  the  excess  is  consumed  for  necessary 
clothing  or  perhaps  squandered  for  unnecessary 
indulgence.  The  entire  tangible  possessions  of 
these  six  millions  of  illiterates  of  the  South  are 
probably  not  equal  in  actual  value  to  the  ordinary 
clothing  of  an  average  six  millions  of  the  people 
of  the  North.     The  eagerness  of  at  least  a  great 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy? 


303 


majority  of  these  to  obtain  knowledge  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated  ;  but  however  willing  they  may  be, 
they  can  do  but  little.     The  cost  of  enlightening 
this  mass  of  ignorance  must,  in  the  main,  be  sup- 
plied by  some  one  else.     If  these  poor  people  can 
be  so  stimulated  as  to  give  their  children  opportu- 
nity to  take   advantage  of  privileges  offered  to 
them  by  an  enlightened  national  policy,  it  is  all 
that  can   be  expected    of   them.      It  counts    for 
much   if   the   patient    do   not    find   the   remedy 
nauseous.     The  few  words  already  quoted  from 
the  Superintendent  of  Education  of  North  Caro- 
lina will   enable   the   reader   to    understand    this 
situation  better  than  many  pages  of  dissertation  : 
"  I   have   seen,"    he   says,  "  negro  children    all 
over  the  State,  here  and  there,  going  to  school  in 
such  garbs  as  the  white  children  would  not  ap- 
pear  in.      It   was   not   because   the   parents  did 
not  want  to   put  them  in  better   condition,  but 
because   they  were    absolutely   unable  to   do    it. 
They    would    have     a    long    shirt    on,    reaching 
perhaps    half   way   down  the   legs,    and  nothing 
else  ;  with  a  piece  of  ash-cake  and  boiled  bacon 
or   pickled   pork    for   their   dinner.      The   white 
people  who    are   without   the  privileges   of  edu- 
cation   and   whose    children    are    not    educated, 


3°4  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

and  who  are  keeping  their  children  at  home  with- 
out education,  have  been  so  long  without  the 
benefits  and  privileges  of  education  that  they 
have  reached  a  state  of  stupor  which  it  is  hard  to 
get  them  out  of." 

These  words  were  uttered  in  the  year  of  grace 
1884,  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  before  a  com- 
mittee of  the  House  of  Representatives  ;  which 
committee  made  a  report  to  the  servants  of 
our  American  Caesar,  the  representatives  of  the 
American  people:  who,  with  full  knowledge  of 
these  facts— "DID  NOTHING. 

II.  The  Giving -Hands.  —  The  charity  of  the 
North  has  been  poured  out  like  water  to  aid  in 
ameliorating  this  evil.  Not  less  than  twenty  mil- 
lions of  dollars  have  been  given  by  private  individ- 
uals, churches,  aid-societies,  and  other  organized 
bodies,  to  help  in  the  education  of  the  people  of 
the  South  since  the  close  of  the  war.  It  is  a  stream 
that  naturally  cannot  be  expected  to  flow  on  for- 
ever. Pity  for  the  oppressed,  sympathy  for  the 
helpless  freedmen,  and  kindly  generosity  for  the 
conquered  foe,  for  a  score  of  years  have  appealed 
to  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  the  North,  and 
never  in  vain.  In  every  State  of  the  South, 
schools,  academies,  churches,  public   and  private 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy  f     505 

institutions  of  learning,  of  every  class  and  variety, 
have  sprung  up  under  the  fostering  care  of  North- 
ern philanthropy.  Whites  and  blacks  alike  have 
shared  in  its  beneficent  influences,  and  all  has 
been  done  that  could  reasonably  have  been  expect- 
ed under  the  existent  circumstances;  and  more. 
It  is  evident  to  all  that  this  stream  must  grow 
less.  Year  by  year  it  has  been  diminishing  in  its 
general  character.  Only  the  bulk  of  some  great 
benefactions  has  been  sufficient  to  keep  it  up  to 
the  measure  of  the  past.  In  the  future  it  will 
grow  less  and  less  as  the  evil  it  was  designed  to 
remedy  grows  less  apparent  and  the  sentiment 
from  which  in  the  main  it  springs  becomes  more 
and  more  remote.  Unless  this  private  largess  is 
supplemented  by  public  aid,  the  struggle  with 
illiteracy  at  the  South  will  soon  come  to  be  a 
hopeless  one. 

The  States. 
We  do  not  care  to  discuss  or  compare  the  pub 
lie-school  systems  of  the  North  and  the  South. 
Time  is  too  precious  to  be  wasted  in  what  can 
be  of  no  advantage  to  any  one.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  public  schools  are  a  new  thing  in 
most  of  the  Southern   States.     In  none  of  them 


306  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

was  there  what  might  be  termed  a  fair  system  of 
public  instruction  until  after  the  close  of  the  war. 
Since  1868  all  have  done  something  in  this  direc- 
tion. Some  have  done  all  that  could  have  been 
expected.  Some  municipalities  have  exhibited  a 
spirit  of  enterprise  and  self-sacrifice  that  awakens 
admiration.  Yet,  judged  by  results,  these  efforts 
fall  so  far  below  what  is  required  to  be  done  that 
the  Northern  mind  is  apt  to  think  no  progress 
has  been  made  unless  he  keeps  in  view  a  few 
facts  in  regard  to  the  burden  and  ability  of  these 
States.  We  do  not  care  to  trouble  the  reader 
with  statistics  as  to  what  has  been  done  or  at- 
tempted. It  needs  but  a  moment's  consideration 
of  a  few  pertinent  facts  to  convince  any  one  that 
they  are  utterly  unable,  no  matter  how  willing 
they  may  be,  to  perform  the  task  of  enlightening 
the  ignorance  in  their  borders  : 

Within  a  quarter  of  a  century  they  have  lost 
all  that  it  costs  to  carry  on  an  unsuccessful  war 
extending  through  four  years,  fought  out  upon 
their  own  territory  and  invalidating  by  its 
result  every  debt  contracted  for  its  prosecu- 
tion. 

Nearly  one-half  the  accumulations  of  two  hun- 
dred years  of  enterprise   and  industry  had  been 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy?     307 

invested  in,  and  was  represented  by,  slaves  which, 
by  the  result  of  war,  were  made  free. 

Almost  all  financial  enterprises,  railroads,  banks, 
and  other  corporate  institutions  within  the 
borders  of  these  States  were  destroyed  and  ren- 
dered worthless  as  investments,  either  by  the 
financial  exigencies  or  by  the  results  of  war. 

These  States  having  previous  to  the  war  no 
established  public-school  system  are  almost  with- 
out the  machinery  of  education  and  have  yet  to 
build  school-houses,  establish  schools,  and  orga- 
nize the  army  of  teachers  which  in  the  States  of 
the  North  is  already  full  to  overflowing. 

"  We  must  remember,  gentlemen,"  said  Dr. 
Mayo  before  a  committee  of  Congress,  "  that  nine 
men  out  of  ten  of  the  South  never  saw  what  we 
call  a  good  public  elementary  school." 

It  is  believed  that  the  public-school  buildings 
of  the  city  of  Denver  alone  exceed  in  value  all 
the  public-school  buildings  of  the  State  of  North 
Carolina. 

These  two  facts  give  a  better  idea  of#  what 
needs  to  be  done  than  a  volume  of  statistics. 

The  proportion  of  white  illiterates  alone,  in 
these  States,  is  so  great  as  to  tax  their  educating 
power  to  the  utmost,  even  without  the  losses  they 


308  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

have  sustained ;  and,  in  the  present  state  of  the 
public  mind,  taxation  for  the  purpose  of  educat- 
ing the  colored  illiterates  seems,  to  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  whites  of  the  South,  not  only 
burdensome  but  unjust. 

The  increase  of  taxation  necessary  for  the 
proper  education  of  the  colored  illiterates  is 
beyond  the  limit  of  reasonable  or  possible  expen- 
diture on  the  part  of  these  States.  To  put  within 
the  reach  of  every  person  within  school-age  of 
the  commonwealths  of  the  Black  Belt  an  oppor- 
tunity to  acquire  even  the  rudiments  of  an  Eng- 
lish education  would  impose  upon  the  people  of 
these  States  a  tax  to  which  no  free  people  would 
submit.  Already  in  some  of  these  States  the 
rate  of  taxation  for  public-school  purposes  is 
greater  than  in  any  State  of  the  North,  and  yet 
the  results  upon  the  illiteracy  of  that  region  are 
scarcely  perceptible.  However  well-disposed  the 
citizens  might  be  to  the  education  of  all,  and 
however  anxious  that  general  intelligence  should 
immediately  prevail,  it  is  an  impossibility  for 
them  to  provide  a  system  of  schools  at  all  com- 
mensurate with  the  needs  of  the  people. 

The  average  school-year  throughout  the  South 
in  1880  was  less  than  a  hundred  days;  the  aver- 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy?     309 

age  attendance,  less  than  thirty  per  cent  of  those 
within  school-age. 

The  Nation. 

There  are  many  cogent  reasons  why  the  greater 
part  of  the  burden  of  educating  the  illiterates  of 
the  South  should  be  undertaken  and  discharged 
by  the  general  government  for  a  considerable 
period — at  least  until  the  percentage  of  illiteracy 
shall  be  reduced  to  a  point  where  it  can  readily  be 
left  to  the  care  of  the  local  municipalities,  the 
individual  States,  and  private  enterprise.  Some 
of  the  more  potent  of  these  reasons  are  the  follow- 
ing : 

Because  there  is  no  other  power  or  authority 
able  to  cope  with  so  great  an  evil. 

Because  the  danger  likely  to  result  from  the 
preponderance  of  ignorance  threatens  the  peace 
and  prosperity  of  the  Nation. 

Because  there  is  no  other  manner  in  which  the 
danger  of  conflict  between  the  races  is  at  all 
likely  to  be  avoided. 

Because   it   is  cheaper  to   enlighten  ignorance^ 
than  to  suppress  violence.  / 

Because  we  DARE  not  leave  three-fourths  of  a 
majority  in  the   Electoral  College,  the  House  of 


310  An  Appeal  to  Gcesar. 

Representatives,  and  the  Senate,  in  the  hands  of 
constituencies  nearly  half  of  whose  voters  cannot 
read  the  names  upon  their  ballots. 

Because  the  Nation  was  responsible  for  Slavery, 
and  Slavery  was  the  cause  of  all  that  ignorance 
from  which  the  present  peril  springs. 

Because  the  Nation  enfranchised  ignorance  and 
thereby  gave  it  power  to  harm. 

Because  by  such  enfranchisement  the  Nation 
enhanced  the  peril  which  now  threatens  these 
States  from  the  inherent  antipathy  of  race. 

Because,  by  thus  extending  the  elective  fran- 
chise, the  general  government  imposed  upon  the 
several  States  the  burden  of  educating  their 
voters  at  the  peril  not  only  of  bad  government 
but  of  violence  and  disaster,  thereby  enhancing 
the  burden  of  taxation  until  it  became  too  great 
to  be  borne. 

Because  the  Nation  besought  the  aid  of  the 
colored  man  in  its  struggle  for  existence  and  has 
no  right  to  abandon  him,  bound  with  the  fetters 
of  ignorance,  to  his  hereditary  enemy. 

Because  the  Nation  promised  the  slave  his  lib- 
erty, and  emancipation  is  but  half  achieved  while 
ignorance  yet  confines  the  freedman's  soul  and 
holds  him  still  in  impalpable  bondage. 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy?     311 

Because  the  Nation  encouraged  and  supported 
slavery  and  permitted  the  colored  man  not  only 
to  be  despoiled  of  his  liberty,  but  to  be  excluded 
from  the  possibility  of  acquiring  knowledge ;  and 
because  the  nation  which  permits  such  crime 
should  be  glad  to  offer  retribution. 

Because  the  danger  that  impends  from  the  co- 
occupancy  of  the  soil  by  races  alien  to  each  other 
in  tradition,  development,  and  apparent  interests 
results  from  the  encouragement,  protection,  and 
favor  which  a  free  government  extended  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  that 
government  to  assist  in  removing  the  evil  which 
it  helped  to  create. 

Because  the  Nation  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
freedman  the  ballot  and  imposed  upon  him  the 
duty  of  exercising  honestly  and  intelligently 
the  power  thus  conferred,  and  demanded  of  him 
a  task  which  he  was  helpless  to  perform  because  of 
his  ignorance.  Common  decency  demands  that  a 
nation  which  requires  a  duty  at  the  hands  of  the 
citizen  should  clothe  him  with  power  for  its 
performance. 

Because  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
is  bound,  by  every  consideration  of  honor,  truth, 
and  fidelity  to  its  allies,  to  protect  in  the  exer- 


312  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

rise  of  their  rights  as  citizens  that  race  to  whose 
degradation  she  lent  herself  willingly  for  almost  a 
century,  and  to  whom  in  her  hour  of  need  she 
appealed  for  aid.  Because  the  slave  gave  of  his 
blood  to  maintain  the  liberty  of  the  Nation,  the 
freedman  is  entitled,  as  of  the  highest  and  holiest 
right,  to  be  armed  and  equipped  at  the  national 
expense  for  the  struggle  for  liberty  and  equality 
of  power  which  lies  before  him. 

Because  it  is  a  most  desirable  thing  that  the 
general  government  should  be  presented  day  by 
day  in  a  beneficent  and  kindly  aspect  to  the  com- 
mon people  of  those  Southern  republics  whose 
political  beliefs  have  been  corrupted  by  slavery 
and  distorted  by  the  dogma  of  "  State  Sove- 
reignty "  until  they  have  come  to  regard  the 
Nation  as  a  sort  of  hereditary  enemy  of  the  State 
— an  extraneous  and  half-hostile  power  which  it 
is  the  bounden  duty  of  the  citizen  to  thwart  in 
its  repeated  assaults  upon  the  rights  and  privi- 
leges of  the  Southern  white  man.  As  the  mes- 
senger of  good  tidings,  the  bearer  of  precious 
gifts,  the  general  government  will  come  into  a 
more  direct,  personal,  and  pleasant  relation  with 
the  people  of  the  South  than  it  has  ever  before 
maintained.      As    a    Reconstructionary    measure 


Who  Shall  Apply  the  Remedy?     313 

this  is  of  prime  importance,  since  it  strikes  at  the 
very  root  of  the  evil — the  disaffection  of  the  unin- 
formed masses. 

We  do  not  propose  to  discuss  any  of  these  pro- 
positions. The  man  who  would  deny  them  is 
impervious  to  reason,  and  the  nation  which  does 
not  recognize  them  by  explicit  and  effective 
action  deserves  all  the  ill  which  its  neglect  may 
entail  upon  its  future. 


The  Method  of  Application. 

NATIONAL  aid  to  education  is  a  question 
which  has  attracted  a  constantly  increas- 
ing interest  in  the  public  mind  during  the  past 
fifteen  years.  In  the  main  it  has  been  considered 
rather  from  a  theoretical  and  sentimental  point 
of  view  than  as  a  remedy  for  any  specific  evil  or 
a  preventive  of  any  clearly  defined  danger.'  ,  In  a 
general  way  it  has  come  to  be  accepted  as  "a 
good  thing  to  be  done."  Our  pride  as  a  people 
has  been  touched  by  the  rate  of  illiteracy  and  the 
actual  numerical  array  of  illiterate  voters.     There 


The  Method  of  Application.         315 

has  arisen  a  feeling  in   the  public  mind  that   in  a 
vague,    remote    manner    ignorance    may  become 
dangerous.     As  a  preventive  of  the  special  evils 
which  we   have   endeavored  to    set   forth   it  has 
hardly  received    any  consideration  whatever  be- 
cause of     the  overweening  desire  of    those  who 
sought    Congressional    action    in    regard    to   the 
matter  to  prevent  its  entering  the  arena  of  party 
politics.     There    has    been    an    almost    universal 
desire  that  whatever  is  to  be  done  in  this  matter 
may  be   done  with  smiling  and    unforced  assent 
and  by  the  general  accord  of  all  parties.     To  ob- 
tain this  unanimity  of  sentiment,  those  who  have 
regarded  it  in  its  true  light   as   a   supplementary 
"  Reconstruction  measure"  have  been  willing  to 
waive  all  questions  of  form,  method,  and  detail 
in  order  to    secure    a  general  concurrence    in    a 
liberal    appropriation     of    public    funds    for    the 
purpose  of  promoting  primary  education  in  the 
various   States,   and    thereby   reducing  promptly 
and    effectually   the    present   ratio    of    illiteracy. 
The  motive  has  been  a  good  one :  the  policy  is 
absurd.     Certain    results    which    have    been    ob- 
tained are,  however,  of    the  utmost  value  when 
considered  in  connection  with  what    remains  to 
be  done. 


316  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the 
Superintendents  of  Education  of  nearly  every 
State  in  the  Union,  the  leading  educators,  teach- 
ers, and  educational  writers  of  the  country,  have 
almost  all  united  in  declaring  it  to  be  their  opin- 
ion that  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
should  act  liberally,  vigorously,  and  promptly  in 
regard  to  this  matter. 

Those  having  charge  of  educational  institutions 
throughout  the  South  supported  in  whole  or  in 
part  by  Northern  charity,  the  representatives  of 
churches,  freedmen's  aid-societies,  and  other  or- 
ganizations which  have  been  active  in  educational 
effort  through  that  region  ever  since  the  close 
of  the  war,  have  unanimously,  emphatically,  and 
persistently  indorsed  this  opinion. 

Four  successive  occupants  of  the  Presidential 
chair,  each  from  his  own  peculiar  point  of  view 
and  in  accordance  with  his  own  temperament  and 
characteristics,  have  urged  upon  the  attention  of 
Congress  as  a  matter  of  prime  importance  the 
enactment  of  some  provision  to  secure  the  gene- 
ral intelligence  of  voters. 

Not  less  than  fifteen  separate  bills,  each  more 
or  less  complete  in  its  details,  have  been  intro- 
duced in  Congress  upon  this  subject. 


The  Method  of  Application.        3 1 7 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States,  after  long 
deliberation,  passed  a  bill  appropriating  nearly 
one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for  this  purpose. 

After  long  deliberation,  the  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  having  the  subject 
in  charge  presented  to  the  House  a  minority 
and  majority  report,  both  agreeing  in  the  sub- 
stantial advisement  of  liberal  appropriation  but 
differing  as  to  the  manner  of  distribution  and 
application  of  the  funds. 

All  this  has  been  done,  however,  upon  the 
hypothesis  of  promoting  education  simply  as  a 
cure  for  the  abstract  evil  of  illiteracy,  and  not,  to 
any  marked  degree  at  least,  in  consideration  of 
its  effect  upon  the  other  and  more  serious  evils 
to  which  we  have  called  attention.  It  may  be 
accepted  as  a  settled  fact,  therefore,  that  the 
weight  of  public  sentiment  is  already  distinctly 
ascertained  to  be  in  favor  of  the  following  propo- 
sitions, to  wit : 

First.  That  the  present  illiteracy  is  inimical  to 
the  national  welfare. 

Second.  That  it  is  advisable  and  necessary  that 
national  action  of  some  sort  should  be  taken  in 
regard  thereto. 

Third.  That  liberal  and  prompt  appropriations 


3 1 8  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

should  be  made  by  the  general  government  in  aid 
of  primary  education. 

Fourth.  That    such    appropriations    should    be 
distributed  upon  the  basis  of  illiteracy. 

Upon  these   four  propositions  a  vast   majority 
of    the  best    brain    and  conscience    of    the  land 
unite.     In  arriving  at  these  conclusions  the  ques- 
tion of  harmony  between  the   races,  the  purifica- 
tion   of   the    ballot,   the    firm    establishment    of 
equal  political  rights,  and  the  encouragement  of  a 
more  favorable    inclination    toward  the  national 
government  have  received  hardly  any  considera- 
tion at   all.     Even  without  these,  however,  there 
was  developed  an  active  and  positive   conflict  of 
opinion  in  regard  to  the  method   of  distribution 
and  applying  the    appropriation,  which    may  be 
said  to  constitute  the  most  important  phase  of 
the  present  status  of  the  question. 
Briefly  stated,  the  difference  is  this : 
First.  A  part  of  those  who  advocate  a  liberal 
expenditure  for  national  education  insist  that  the 
funds  thus  appropriated   shall  be  given  without 
material  restriction  (or  at  least  any  that  can  be 
enforced    and    made    really  obligatory)   into  the 
control  of  the  various  States  in  proportion  to  the 
illiteracy  within  their  borders. 


The  Method  of  Application.         3 1  o 

Second.  Another  class  of  those  who  advocate 
not  less  earnestly  the  necessity  of  immediate  and 
vigorous  action  on  the  part  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment in  this  direction,  while  consenting  to  the 
payment  of  the  fund  in  bulk  into  the  treasuries 
of  the  different  States,  by  whom  it  shall  be  dis- 
tributed upon  the  basis  of  illiteracy,  yet  insist 
that  this  payment  shall  be  conditioned  and  lim- 
ited after  the  first  installment  so  as  to  secure  the 
application  of  the  fund,  so  far  as  may  be,  to  the 
purpose  which  it  is  designed  to  promote. 

Third.  Another  class,  among  whom  is  the 
author  of  this  work  and  the  many  thousands  who 
have  signed  the  petition  which  he  has  heretofore 
circulated  in  regard  to  this  matter,  are  of  the 
opinion  that  the  money  appropriated  for  the  pro- 
motion of  primary  education  in  the  various 
States  should  not  be  paid  over  in  gross  to  the 
treasurers  of  the  various  States  at  all ;  but, 
instead  of  that,  should  be  distributed,  on  the 
basis  of  illiteracy,  to  the  various  townships  and 
school-districts  in  wJiich  free  primary  schools  shall 
have  been  in  active  operation  for  a  specified  period 
during  the  time  covered  by  the  appropriation, 
and  having  a  specified  average  atte?uia?ice. 

The  reasons  which  obtain    against  the  former 


320  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

methods  of  distribution  and  in  favor  of  the  latter 
are  as  follows : 

Those  who  advocate  the  payment  of  the  fund 
directly  into  the  treasuries  of  the  various  States 
insist  that  the  general  government  has  no  right 
to  establish  a  system  of  public  schools  within  the 
several  States,  or  to  do  anything  in  the  direction 
of  the  general  enlightenment  of  the  citizens,  ex- 
cept through  the  agency  and  by  the  means  pro- 
vided by  the  States  themselves.  As  was  natu- 
rally to  be  expected,  this  plea  for  the  sacredness 
of  State  rights  comes  mainly  from  the  South. 
The  bulwark  which  so  long  protected  Slavery  is 
that  behind  which  Ignorance  is  now  intrenched. 
The  claim  that  the  nation  has  no  right  to  provide 
for  the  intelligence  of  the  citizen  is  one  that 
ought  under  no  circumstances  to  be  allowed.  It 
is  true  that,  at  the  present  time,  it  does  not  seem 
necessary  that  the  government  should  undertake 
the  organization  of  schools  or  the  establishment 
of  a  system  of  public  instruction  in  any  State  of 
the  Union  ;  but  that  it  has  not  the  right,  under 
circumstances  which  might  very  easily  arise,  to 
provide  for  the  instruction  of  the  whole  body  of 
citizens  of  any  particular  State  or  of  any  specific 
class  of    those  citizens,   should   the  public   weal 


The  Method  of  Application.        321 

demand,  is  a  doctrine  which,  in  the  present  as- 
pect of  affairs  and  with  the  prospect  which  the 
future  offers  of  dissension  and  perhaps  of  conflict, 
ought  by  no  means  to  be  even  tacitly  admitted. 
After  the  mistakes  which  have  occurred  during 
the  past  twenty  years  from  an  inconsiderate  zeal 
for  outward  harmony,  we  should  at  least  have 
learned  the  peril  of  establishing  any  precedent 
which  may  hereafter  bar  the  action  of  the  na- 
tional government  in  the  redress  of  grievances  or 
the  prevention  of  evil. 

Another  objection  to  the  payment  of  the  fund 
directly  into  the  treasuries  of  the  several  States 
is  that  it  unnecessarily  adds  an  element  of  un- 
certainty with  regard  to  the  achievement  of  the 
specific  results  desired  to  be  attained.  It  matters 
not  how  faithfully  the  people  of  any  particular 
State  may  desire  to  carry  out  the  provisions  and 
accomplish  the  purpose  of  the  act,  the  temptation 
of  a  large  fund,  in  whole  or  in  part,  at  the  dis- 
posal of  a  State  Legislature,  which  is  not  derived 
directly  from  the  taxation  of  their  constituents, 
is  one  which  very  few  legislative  bodies  are  likely 
to  be  able  to  withstand.  If  either  of  the  bills 
which  have  been  submitted  should  become  a  law, 
several  of  the  States  would  receive  sums  ranging 


322  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

from  five  to  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  out 
of  the  apportionment.  In  some  cases  this  fund 
would  be  much  greater  than  the  tax  which  these 
States  have  hitherto  themselves  levied  for  educa- 
tional purposes.  That  it  would  be  expended  with 
altogether  the  same  care  attending  the  application 
of  funds  raised  by  immediate  taxation  of  the  citi- 
zens of  the  State  is  not  to  be  expected.  At  the 
very  least  we  should  anticipate  that  experiments 
would  be  tried,  lavish  expenditures  in  .certain 
directions  permitted,  and  a  general  lack  of  econ- 
omy in  the  public-school  systems  of  these  States 
inaugurated  and  encouraged  thereby.  Besides 
this,  it  should  be  remembered  that  all  govern- 
ments are  at  least  human.  The  executive  and 
legislative  officers  of  no  State  in  this  Union  can 
claim  to  be  exempt  from  the  common  infirmities 
of  our  nature.  The  general  government  has  had 
some  striding  illustrations  of  this  fact.  The 
history  of  the  funds  which  have  hitherto  been 
distributed  among  the  States  for  specific  pur- 
poses or  to  await  the  demand  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment is  almost  farcical.  The  school-funds  of 
every  State  of  the  South  which  had  a  public- 
school  system  of  any  sort  whatever  before  the 
war  were  buried  in  the  grave  of  the  Confederacy. 


The  Method  of  Application. 


323 


The  Federal  agricultural  land-scrip  distributed 
among  the  States  since  the  close  of  the  war  was 
in  a  majority  of  cases  either  squandered  outright 
or  rendered  almost  valueless  for  the  purpose  for 
which  it  was  designed,  by  maladministration  of 
the  funds  or  their  application  to  the  promotion 
of  some  whimsical  theory.  In  short,  to  place  the 
fund  appropriated  for  the  promotion  of  primary 
education  by  the  general  government  in  bulk  in 
the  hands  of  the  various  State  governments  is  to 
invite  maladministration,  defalcation,  misapplica- 
tion, and  every  conceivable  influence  which  may 
interfere  with  the  accomplishment  of  the  precise 
results  intended  to  be  secured. 

In  addition  to  this,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  in  all  the  States  of  the  South,  if  this  course 
should  be  pursued,  the  fund  will  pass  under  the 
control  of  the  dominant  race  alone ;  and  while  it 
may  be  provided  that  it  shall  be  equitably  and 
fairly  distributed  among  schools  for  both  races,  it 
is  easy  to  see  that  disaffection  would  almost  cer- 
tainly arise  on  account  of  this  fact.  It  is  almost 
impossible  that,  with  the  deep  and  peculiar  feeling 
which  exists  throughout  the  South  in  regard  to 
the  education  and  enlightenment  of  the  colored 
race,  any  State  government  absolutely  under  the 


324  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

control  of  the  white  population  should  fairly  and 
honestly  administer  a  trust  of  this  nature.  It  is 
not  necessary  that  there  should  be  any  inequality 
in  the  formal  distribution.  There  are  a  thousand 
ways  of  squandering  such  a  fund  which  even  the 
wisest  and  most  cordially  inclined  to  the  purposes 
of  the  appropriation  would  find  it  difficult  to  point 
out  and  define.  What  is  needed  above  all  things 
is  a  direct  and  immediate  transmutation  of  money 
into  intelligence.  Costly  school-houses  are  not 
required.  Very  little  of  the  ornate  machinery 
which  is  found  in  the  Northern  public  schools  is 
needed.  Good  teachers,  cheap  houses,  and  the 
books  necessary  for  primary  instruction  consti- 
tute all  the  equipment  which  the  national  gov- 
ernment should  permit  or  encourage  under  the 
provisions  of  this  bill.  In  the  administration  of 
this  fund  the  utmost  economy  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial. The  primary  results  which  are  desired  must 
be  immediate,  not  ultimate.  We  cannot  afford 
to  wait.  What  is  to  be  done  must  be  done  at 
once  ;  to-morrow  it  may  be  too  late. 

Again,  it  should  be  remembered  that  whatever 
restrictions  may  be  placed  by  the  general  govern- 
ment upon  the  application  of  this  fund  by  the 
States  to  which  it  is  apportioned,  no  such  con- 


The  Method  of  Application.         325 

ditions  can  be  enforced  nor  any  penalty  for  their 
violation  exacted.  More  than  one  of  the  bills 
which  have  been  introduced  have  attempted  to 
guard  against  this  tacitly  admitted  danger  by 
providing  that  a  special  commission  or  some  offi- 
cer of  the  Government  shall  be  authorized  to  re- 
fuse payment  of  the  subsequent  installments  of 
,the  fund  to  those  States  which  shall  fail  faithfully 
and  honestly  to  carry  into  effect  the  conditions 
of  the  act.  It  is  possible  that  this  method  of 
procedure  might  be  carried  out  in  practice,  but  it 
is  not  at  all  probable  that  it  would  be.  Such  an 
officer  or  such  a  commission  might  indeed  refuse 
to  direct  the  payment  of  the  subsequent  install- 
ments, but  it  would  be  at  the  peril  of  being 
arraigned  for  partiality,  and  would  inevitably 
result  in  an  appeal  to  the  legislative  branch  of  the 
Government  for  the  abolition  of  the  commission 
and  the  repeal  of  the  restriction.  Unless  the 
case  were  of  a  very  apparent  and  atrocious  char- 
acter, the  result  of  such  an  appeal  cannot  be 
doubted.  Between  a  limited  and  unlimited  con- 
trol of  the  fund  by  the  several  States  there  is 
only  the  slightest  margin  of  choice.  Of  the  two 
perhaps  the  latter  is  preferable,  since  a  condition 
which  cannot  be  enforced  is,  at  the  best,  only  a 


326  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

mockery  which  tends  to  bring  the  power  impos- 
ing it  into  contempt. 

Another  reason  why  this  fund  should  not  be 
put  at  the  disposal  of  the  various  State  govern- 
ments— and  a  most  serious  and  important  consid- 
eration it  is,  too — is  that  the  administration  of 
such  a  fund  is  almost  sure  to  become  a  party 
question,  and  the  fund  itself  likely  to  be  used  for 
the  promotion  of  partisan  purposes.  The  power 
to  control  the  appointment  of  teachers,  the  erec- 
tion of  school-buildings,  the  establishment  of 
institutions  of  learning,  and  all  the  incidents  at- 
tending the  organization  and  administration  of  a 
public-school  system,  especially  in  States  where 
all  the  inferior  officers  are  appointed  by  the 
Chief  Executive  and  in  which  the  administration 
of  the  public-school  system  is  a  thing  new  to  the 
people,  is  a  most  important  and  dangerous  politi- 
cal factor.  The  people  of  the  North  and  their 
representatives  in  Congress  seem  entirely  to  have 
forgotten  this  one  important  feature  common  to 
all  the  Southern  States,  that  they  are  the  best 
examples  of  centralized  power  to  be  found  in 
our  Federal  Union.  Their  governments  are  cen- 
tripetal in  all  their  tendencies.  In  nearly  every 
one  of  these  States  the  administrative  officers  are 


The  Method  of  Application,         327 

appointed  directly  or  indirectly  either  by  the 
Governor  or  by  the  dominant  majority  in  one  or 
both  branches  of  the  Legislature.  Take,  for 
instance,  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  The 
majority  in  the  Legislature  appoints  the  Justices 
of  the  Peace  of  the  various  counties;  the  Justices 
of  the  Peace  select  the  County  Commissioners  ; 
the  County  Commissioners  control  the  assess- 
ment of  taxes  and  the  distribution  of  public 
funds,  appoint  every  officer  connected  with  the 
schools  of  the  county,  designate  every  Registrar 
of  Voters  and  Inspector  of  Elections,  have  charge 
of  all  schools  and  highways,  and  in  short  admin- 
ister the  whole  government  of  the  county  with- 
out regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  If  one 
of  these  subordinate  officers  fails  to  perform  his 
duty  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  district,  the  only 
method  by  which  a  change  may  be  secured  and 
another  put  in  his  place  is  by  overturning  the 
whole  State  administration.  There  are  more 
than  five  thousand  appointive  offices  in  the  State, 
and  hardly  five  hundred  elective  ones.  To  put 
the  administration  of  such  a  fund  into  the  hands 
of  a  State  the  laws  of  which  are  specifically  de- 
signed to  thwart  and  suppress  public  sentiment 
is  as  farcical  as  to  ask  the  wolf  to  divide  his  din- 


328  An  Appeal  to  Ctesar. 

ner  with  the  lamb.  In  some  counties,  no  doubt, 
it  would  be  honestly  administered  and  fairly- 
divided  between  the  races ;  in  others  there  would 
hardly  be  an  attempt  to  accomplish  such  a  result. 
It  should  be  remembered,  also,  that,  however 
desirous  the  officials  and  people  of  the  various 
States  of  the  South  might  be  to  effect  the  results 
aimed  at  by  the  legislation  in  question,  yet  they 
are  entirely  lacking  in  that  experience  in  the 
administration  of  such  a  system  which  has  be- 
come almost  second-nature  to  the  people  of  the 
North.  The  public  schools  of  the  North  (espe- 
cially outside  of  the  great  cities),  regulated  and 
controlled  as.  they  are  by  boards  of  directors 
chosen  by  the  voters  of  the  districts,  are  perhaps 
the  best  examples  of  economic  administration 
which  the  world  has  ever  known.  Every  dollar 
of  expenditure  is  carefully  discussed  and  consid- 
ered, not  merely  by  the  board  of  directors  but  by 
the  people  of  the  district  in  their  annual  or  semi- 
annual meetings.  In  many  cases  the  selection  of 
school-trustees  or  teachers  may  appear  for  a  time 
to  be  a  matter  of  form;  but  no  sooner  is  there 
any  hint  of  maladministration,  any  suspicion  that 
the  teacher  is  less  efficient  than  might  be  desired  or 
that  any  abuses  have  crept  into  the  school,  than 


The  Method  of  Application.        329 

the  public  spirit  is  aroused,  the  matter  is  dis- 
cussed at  every  fireside  and  at  every  gathering, 
the  responsibility  is  quickly  ascertained,  and  the 
party  on  whom  it  rests  held  to  a  strict  account. 
In  most  if  not  all  of  the  States  of  the  South  both 
this  machinery  and  this  incentive  are  entirely 
wanting.  The  officers  in  charge  of  the  schools 
are  no  doubt  in  most  cases  good  men.  They 
desire  to  see  them  succeed,  and  they  are  anxious 
that  the  systems  adopted  by  their  respective 
States  should  yield  the  best  results.  They  are  in 
most  instances  competent,  active,  faithful  men, 
no  doubt ;  but  they  are  accountable,  not  to  their 
neighbors,  but  only  to  the  appointing  power. 
And  even  in  those  cases  in  which  the  neighbor- 
hood is  responsible  for  the  character  of  the  school- 
commissioners  there  is  almost  an  entire  absence 
of  that  administrative  knowledge  and  experience 
in  the  direction  of  public  affairs  which  the  free 
schools  and  township-system  of  the  North  have 
developed  to  such  a  marvelous  extent  among  her 
people.  From  boyhood  the  Northern  man  is 
trained  to  the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  He  is 
accustomed  to  consider  himself  as  a  factor  in  the 
affairs  of  his  vicinage.  If  an  officer  of  the  town- 
ship   or   of  the   school-district    incurs    his   disap- 


33°  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

proval,  he  sets  himself  at  once  to  work  for  his 
removal.  He  discusses  the  matter  with  his 
neighbors,  ascertains  the  tendencies  of  public 
sentiment,  recounts  his  objections  or  states  his 
suspicions,  and  at  the  annual  election  asks  his 
neighbors  to  pass  upon  the  question  of  the  con- 
tinuance or  discontinuance  of  the  offending  offi- 
cer.  This  fact  makes  it  far  more  difficult  to 
apply  such  an  appropriation  to  partisan  purposes 
in  a  State  of  the  North  than  in  those  States  to 
which  three-fourths  of  it  must  be  apportioned. 
The  people  of  the  South  may  be  just  as  upright 
and  honest  as  those  of  the  North  ;  yet  the  fact 
that  at  the  North  those  in  control  of  the  public 
fund  in  one  school-district  may  belong  to  one 
political  party  and  in  the  adjoining  district  to 
another  tends,  of  itself,  to  prevent  deleterious 
political  results.  In  every  State  of  the  North  the 
County  Superintendents  and  other  higher  offi- 
cials of  the  State  school-system  represent  the 
politics  of  the  districts  in  which  their  duties  are 
discharged ;  in  one  county  it  is  a  Republican, 
and  in  the  adjacent  one  a  Democrat.  In  most  if 
not  all  of  the  States  of  the  South,  however,  this 
is  entirely  different ;  the  county  officers  are  ap- 
pointed, directly   or   indirectly,  by  some  central 


The  Method  of  Application.         331 

State  power,  and,  no  matter  what  may  be  the 
sentiment  of  the  majority  of  the  county  or  dis- 
trict to  which  their  duties  extend,  they  represent 
always  the  dominant  party  of  the  State.  To  ex- 
pect a  clean,  fair,  and  equitable  administration  of 
such  a  fund  under  such  circumstances  and  at  the 
hands  of  officials  so  appointed  is  not  only  to 
admit  the  universal  integrity,  uprightness,  and 
efficiency  of  such  officials  simply  because  they  are 
Southern  men,  but  to  expect  them  to  be  endowed 
with  superhuman  wisdom,  honesty,  and  devotion 
to  the  best  interests  of  all  "  without  regard  to 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude." 
The  other  plan  of  distributing  a  national  fund 
intended  to  aid  in  the  cure  of  illiteracy  is  designed 
especially  to  obviate  the  objections  which  must 
lie  against  any  scheme  of  apportionment  by 
which  the  funds  are  placed  under  the  immediate 
control  of  the  various  States  to  be  distributed 
according  to  the  discretion  of  their  officers,  no 
matter  how  that  discretion  may  be  sought  to  be 
limited  or  modified.  To  frame  an  act  which  shall 
meet  all  the  exigencies  that  may  arise  is  mani- 
festly a  difficult  task.  The  elements  of  the  prob- 
lem for  which  a  solution  is  required  are  by  no 
means  simple.     If  we  keep  in  view,  however,  cer- 


3 32  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

tain  essential  requirements,  we  shall  find  the  task 
much  easier  than  it  seems.  Such  a  plan  should 
possess  certain  fundamental  features  and  prescribe 
the  machinery  by  which  certain  specific  results 
may  be  obtained  and  particular  evils  avoided. 
Among  the  requisite  features  of  such  a  measure 
may  be  named  the  following: 

It  must  provide  with  absolute  certainty  that 
the  fund  shall  be  expended  for  the  promotion  of 
primary  education  and  for  no  other  purpose. 

It  must  unite  economy  of  administration  with 
simplicity  of  detail. 

It  is  desirable  that  it  should  utilize  the  existing 
educational  systems  of  the  various  States  and  at 
the  same  time  provide  a  method  by  which  the 
appropriation  may  be  utilized  in  the  promotion  of 
intelligence  in  case  the  State  authorities  refuse  to 
co-operate  with  the  general  government. 

It  ought,  if  possible,  to  avoid  trespassing  in  the 
least  degree  upon  the  specific  domain  of  the  State, 
even  as  construed  by  the  most  enthusiastic  ad- 
vocate of  State  sovereignty. 

It  should  afford  a  constant  stimulus  to  public 
appropriation  and  private  contribution  in  the 
States  where  illiteracy  most  abounds. 

It  should  provide  a  method  by  which  a  specific 


The  Method  of  Application.         333 

proportion  of  the  fund  may  be  applied  to  the 
enlightenment  of  the  illiterates  of  each  race  with- 
out possibility  of  the  portion  intended  for  one 
race  being  applied  to  the  education  of  the  other. 

On  the  ether  hand,  the  plan  proposed  must 
not — 

Provide  for  a  system  of  national  schools  or  a 
numerous  and  expensive  array  of  Federal  officials  ; 

Nor  place  the  fund  under  the  control  of  any 
State  officials  or  State  legislation  ; 

Nor  leave  any  considerable  loophole  to  fraud 
or  malversation  ; 

Nor  present  such  intricacy  of  detail  as  in  any 
manner  to  interfere  with  a  complete  comprehen- 
sion of  its  operation  by  any  person  of  ordinary 
intelligence. 

It  is  believed  that  an  act  containing  the  follow- 
ing provisions  would  meet  these  essential  require- 
ments : 

I. — That  provision  shall  be  made  for  the  appro- 
priation, during  each  year  of  the  current 
census-decade,  of  specific  sums  which  shall 
be  multiples  of  the  aggregate  illiteracy  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1880. 
II. — That  this  fund  shall  be  distributed  on  the 
basis  of  illiteracy  as  shown  in  the  census  of 


334  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

1880,  and  requiring  the  Federal  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  to  assign  to  each  town- 
ship, parish,  or  school-district  of  each  State 
the  sum  it  is  entitled  to  receive  annually 
upon  that  basis. 

III. — That  the  fund  shall  be  applied  by  pre- 
ference to  the  support  of  free  schools  or- 
ganized and  operated  under  the  law  of  the 
State  in  which  the  district  is  located. 

IV. — That  it  shall  be  used  only  for  the  payment 
of  teachers. 

V. — That  it  shall  be  paid  out  in  quarterly  install- 
ments only  when  the  Commissioner  shall  be 
satisfied  that  a  primary  free  school  has  been 
in  operation  not  less  than  three  months  in 
any  one  year,  with  such  average  of  atten- 
dance as  the  Commissioner  may  prescribe 
considering  the  number  of  children  within 
school-age  resident  in  said  district. 

VI. — That  the  amount  appropriated  shall  in  no 
case  exceed  one-half  of  the  entire  expense 
of  maintaining  said  school,  the  balance  to  be 
made  up  out  of  the  State,'  county,  or  muni- 
cipal appropriations  for  school-purposes,  or 
by  private  contribution. 

VII. — That  the  necessary  facts  in  regard  to  such 


The  Method  of  Application.        335 

school  shall  be  ascertained  by  report  of  the 
proper  officers  under  the  State  system,  for- 
warded  to   the   Commissioner  through  the 
State  Superintendent  of  Education  and  ap- 
proved by  him,  or  by  the  report  of  a  volun- 
tary inspector,  acting  without  pay,   if   the 
school  is  not  a  part  of  any  State  system. 
VIII. — That  payment  of  the  sum  to  which  such 
district  shall  be  entitled  be  made  only  after 
some  prescribed  proof  of  compliance  with 
the  conditions  of  the  statute,  by  check  pay- 
able to  the  order  of  the  teacher  or  other 
designated  representative  of  the  school,  the 
check   being   countersigned,   if   for  a   State 
school,  by  the  State  Superintendent. 
IX. — That  in  case  there  is  no  public  school  organ- 
ized   under  the   State  system   in  operation 
within   any   district,   or   the    authorities    of 
the  State  refuse  to  establish  one,  the  people 
thereof,  under  such  regulations  as  the  Com- 
missioner shall    prescribe,   may   organize    a 
private  school,  free  to  all  within  school-age 
resident  in  said  district  (except  in  case  of 
separate  schools  for  different  races),  and  by 
keeping  the  same  in  operation  the  required 
time,  and  paying   at  least  one-half  of   the 


336  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

expenses  thereof,  shall  be  entitled  to  the 
benefit  of  the  sum  thus  appropriated. 

X. — That  the  sum  appropriated  for  one  year  shall 
not  be  applied  to  school-work  done  in  an- 
other year,  nor  the  sum  assigned  to  one 
district  to  the  payment  of  teachers  in  an- 
other;  and  all  assignments  of  this  appropri- 
ation not  applied  for  within  three  months 
after  the  fiscal  year  for  which  they  were 
appropriated  shall,  at  the  close  of  that  pe- 
riod, be  covered  into  the  Treasury. 

XT. — That  the  State  Superintendent  shall  report 
to  the  Commissioner  the  attendance,  studies 
pursued,  and  text-books  used  in  every  pub- 
lic school  in  his  State  making  application 
for  a  share  in  such  fund,  and  the  Commis- 
sioner shall  be  entitled  of  right  to  visit  and 
inspect  such  school  at  any  time  in  person  or 
by  any  agent  whom  he  may  authorize  to  act 
for  him  :  Provided  that  neither  the  said  Com- 
missioner nor  his  agent,  nor  any  one  acting  on 
behalf  of  the  United  States,  shall  have  any 
power  or  authority  to  i?iterfere  in  any  way 
in  the  management  of  said  school,  the  employ- 
ment or  discharge  of  teachers,  the  course  of 
study  pursued  or  texts-books  employed. 


The  Method  of  Application.         S37 

XII. — That  in   case  the   State  within  which  any 
district  is  located  prescribes  separate  schools 
for  white  and   colored  pupils,  then  the  sum 
which  the  number  of  white  illiterates  in  said 
district  would  entitle  it  to   receive   must  be 
devoted   to  the  aid   of  a  school  for  white 
children    therein,    and    the   sum   which    its 
number  of  colored  illiterates  would  entitle 
it  to  receive  in  like  manner  to  the  support 
of  a  school  for  colored  children  ;  and  neither 
of  these  sums  shall,  under  any  circumstances, 
be  used  to  aid  a  school  for  the  benefit   of 
the  other  race. 
XIII. — This  measure  shall  not  apply  to  any  State 
in  which  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  does 
not  exceed  twelve  per  cent  of   the  aggregate 
population. 
In  considering  the  advantages  of  this  plan  as 
compared  with  any  bill  looking  to  the  payment  of 
the  fund  in  bulk  to  the  State  officials  and  its  ad- 
ministration by  them,  attention  is  directed  to  the 
following  points : 

ECONOMY    OF  ADMINISTRATION. 
It  will  be  observed  that  it  makes  provision  for 
no   new   Federal  official.     Except    the  necessary 


33%  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

increase  of  the  clerical  force  in  the  office  of  the 
present  Commissioner  of  Education,  and  the  sta- 
tionery and  postage  of  his  office,  there  need  be 
no  increase  of  the  governmental  expenditure.  At 
the  very  utmost,  it  would  appear  that  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year  would  be  sufficient  to  admin- 
ister a  fund  of  fifteen  million  dollars  upon  the 
plan  proposed.  This  is,  of  course,  upon  the  hy- 
pothesis that  the  Commissioner  is  a  man  of  prac- 
tical administrative  capacity.  Upon  this  system 
he  will  be  merely  a  financial  agent — the  paymas- 
ter, as  it  were,  of  the  fund.  The  questions  he 
will  have  to  decide  will  not  be  of  a  literary  or 
educational  character,  but  purely  legal  and  finan- 
cial. In  addition  to  the  highest  business  talent, 
he  will  require  tact  in  negotiation,  and  in  the 
avoidance  and  adjustment  of  questions  of  diffi- 
culty arising  between  his  department  and  the 
officers  of  the  various  State  systems  of  instruc- 
tion. The  material  for  the  apportionment  of  the 
fund,  it  will  be  noted,  he  already  has  in  hand. 
The  facts  of  the  census,  relating  to  illiteracy,  are 
reported  in  detail  with  regard  to  the  smallest 
municipal  subdivisions.  The  transfer  of  a  few 
clerks  from  the  Census  to  the  Educational 
Bureau  would  suffice,  in  a  few  weeks,  to  prepare  a 


The  Method  of  Application.         339 

schedule  of  the  amounts  to  which  every  township 
or  district  was  entitled.  In  case  of  change  of 
boundary,  or  difference  as  to  the  amount  to  which 
any  district  was  entitled,  it  could  soon  be  decided 
by  reference  to  the  duplicate  returns  of  the  cen- 
sus-takers on  file  in  the  court-house  of  every 
county. 

CERTAINTY  AND  SIMPLICITY. 
The  fund  passes  through  no  intermediate 
hands.  The  Commissioner  remits  a  check  pay- 
able to  the  order  of  the  man  who  has  done  the 
work,  which  is  to  be  countersigned  and  forwarded 
by  the  State  Superintendent.  The  work  is  sup- 
posed to  be  already  done.  Its  performance  is 
certified  to  by  the  regular  State  officials.  If  there 
is  any  doubt  about  the  fact,  action  may  be  de- 
ferred and  inquiry  instituted.  It  would,  perhaps, 
be  well  to  have  the  vouchers  executed  under  oath, 
as  in  the  case  of  payments  to  pensioners,  and  with 
like  penalties.  All  this  is,  of  course,  a  mere  mat- 
ter of  detail  which  should  be  elaborated  before 
the  measure  becomes  a  law.  It  is  doubtful,  how- 
ever, if  a  like  sum  is  disbursed  by  any  depart- 
ment with  so  little  chance  for  any  slip  betwixt 
the  cup  and  the  lip. 


34-0  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

STIMULATING   EFFECT   UPON   STATE   SYSTEMS. 

By  providing  that  the  sum  appropriated  shall 
in  no  case  exceed  one-third  or  one-half  the  sum 
to  be  expended  in  maintaining  the  school,  a  most 
powerful  incentive  is  offered  to  local  and  individ- 
ual exertion  in  this  direction.  This  part  of  the 
plan  proposed  is  borrowed  from  the  rules  govern- 
ing the  operation  of  the  Peabody  Fund,  which 
has  undoubtedly  been  the  best  managed  and  most 
effective  charity  the  world  has  ever  known.  By 
offering  a  premium  for  self-help  it  has  done  more 
to  stimulate  and  encourage  educational  enterprise 
at  the  South  than  could  possibly  have  been  done 
in  any  other  manner.  The  promise  of  one-third 
or  one-half  the  needed  funds  has  inspired  many  a 
Southern  man  to  a  liberality  of  expenditure  for 
the  public  good  which  he  would  otherwise  never 
have  dreamed  of  exercising,  and  many  a  father 
and  mother  have  been  impelled  by  it  to  self- 
sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  their  children  which  would 
not  otherwise  have  been  thought  worthy  of  a 
moment's  consideration.  Take  Alabama  as  an 
instance  of  the  probable  workings  of  such  an  act. 
The  share  her  people  would  be  entitled  to  re- 
ceive of  an  annual  appropriation  of  $15,000,000 
would  be  $1,127,869.83.     The  total  amount  raised 


The  Method  of  Application.        341 

by  State  taxation  for  schools  in  that  State  in  1880 
was  $250,000.  Even  of  this  the  fact  that  both 
items  of  taxes  received  are  given  in  round  thou- 
sands affects  the  mind  with  doubt  as  to  its  accu- 
racy. But  does  any  one  suppose  that  the  people 
of  Alabama  would  fail  to  raise  another  million  in 
order  to  secure  the  benefits  of  this  appropriation  ? 
In  other  words,  the  appropriation  of  $15,000,000 
by  the  general  government  will  lead  every  South- 
ern State  except  Missouri,  Virginia,  and  Maryland 
to  double  or  treble  their  own  appropriations  for 
school-purposes. 

CO-OPERATION    OF    STATE     AXD     NATIONAL 
AUTHORITIES. 

The  plan  proposed  can  in  no  sense  be  regarded 
as  an  invasion  of  the  right  of  the  State  or  an 
undue  extension  of  the  national  power.  It  is 
simply  a  bonus  offered  to  the  people  of  each  of 
the  lowest  municipal  subdivisions  of  a  State  for 
the  doing  of  a  thing  deemed  essential  to  the 
public  weal.  If  the  State  does  not  see  fit  to  co- 
operate in  this  movement,  there  is  no  attempt  to 
coerce  its  action.  Of  course,  he  would  be  a  brave 
State  legislator  who  would  cast  his  vote  against 
the  acceptance  of   such   an   imperial  bounty ;  but 


34 2  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

if  such  an  opinion  prevails  in  any  legislature,  there 
is  no  penalty  visited  upon  any  one  except  the 
usual  reward  of  stupendous  folly.  As  to  the 
practical  effect,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  both  races  at  the  South 
would  be  heartily  in  favor  of  accepting  such 
bounty,  and  the  very  fact  that  it  came  without 
any  condition  affecting  the  control  of  the  schools 
would  take  away  the  gravest  and  most  serious 
objection  that  has  been  urged  against  the  idea  of 
National  Education  by  the  leading  thinkers  of 
that  section. 

PUTTING  THE  REMEDY  ON  THE  SORE. 
The  provision  which  requires  the  sum  appro- 
priated on  account  of  white  and  of  colored  illiter- 
ates to  be  expended  for  the  support  of  schools  for 
white  and  for  colored  pupils,  respectively,  is  one 
of  the  most  valuable  elements  of  this  plan.  In 
the  present  state  of  public  feeling  at  the  South  it 
is  but  natural  that  there  should  be  a  strong  ten- 
dency to  neglect  the  education  of  the  negro.  The 
Southern  whites,  impoverished  by  the  false  econo- 
mies of  slavery  as  well  as  by  the  results  of  war, 
feel,  very  naturally,  that  the  burden  of  instructing 
some  millions   of   colored   illiterates,  whom    the 


The  Method  of  Application.         343 

Nation  has  made  voters,  is  a  task  beyond  their 
strength,  as  well  as  one  that  ought  not  to  be 
required  of  them.  Such  a  donation  by  the  Nation 
which*  liberated  and  enfranchised  the  blacks,  to- 
ward their  enlightenment  and  elevation,  will  be 
received  by  even  the  most  incredulous  among 
them  as  a  guaranty  of  good  faith  and  kindly 
sympathy.  The  only  thing  required  of  State 
officials  in  this  respect,  as  in  others,  when  co- 
operating with  the  general  government  in  the 
distribution  of  its  bounty,  is  simple  good  faith  in 
the  performance  of  the  conditions  on  which  it  is 
granted. 

THE  GOOD  PAYMASTER  PAYS  WHEN  THE  WORK 
IS  DONE. 
The  best  possible  security  against  a  misappro- 
priation of  the  fund  is  that  not  a  dollar  of  it  is  to 
be  expended  until  full  and  sufficient  proof  is  made 
of  the  complete  performance  of  the  act  it  is 
designed  to  encourage  and  promote.  The  goods 
are  to  be  delivered  before  the  money  is  to  be  paid. 
The  opportunity  for  fraud  is  thereby  reduced  to 
a  minimum,  and  its  probability  absolutely  ex- 
cluded. 


344  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

FREEDOM  FROM  PARTISAN  ABUSE. 
It  will  be  seen  that  this  plan  is  especially  com- 
mendable from  the  fact  that  it  preserves  the  fund 
from,  all  possibility  of  being  prostituted  to .  par- 
tisan purposes.  The  Commissioner  and  a  half- 
dozen  clerks  constitute  the  working  force  for  its 
administration.  Not  a  single  person  to  whom  the 
money  is  to  be  paid  is  in  any  manner  under  the 
control  of  the  Commissioner.  He  appoints  no 
teacher,  no  director  or  trustee  of  any  school,  and 
has  no  control  over  its  course  of  study  further 
than  to  determine  its  adequacy  for  rudimentary 
instruction.  The  whole  system  of  distribution  is 
modeled  on  that  prescribed  for  the  quarterly  pay- 
ment of  pensions,  which  has  long  been  noted 
as  the  simplest,  most  effective  and  economical 
method  of  disbursing  funds  ever  known  under 
our  Government,  or  perhaps  under  any.  It  is  not 
only  simple  in  the  extreme,  but  is  surrounded 
with  checks  which  effectually  prevent  the  mis- 
appropriation of  a  single  dollar,  and  render  it 
impossible  that  it  should  under  any  circumstances 
be  made  a  machine  for  influencing  a  single 
vote. 


The  Method  of  Application.         345 

EXEMPLIFICATION. 

The  objection  having  been  made  to  this  plan 
that  it  is  too  intricate,  we  give  an  instance  of  its 
practical  operation  when  acting  in  conjunction 
with  a  State  system  of  education,  and  when 
taken  advantage  of  by  a  school-district,  no  public 
school  being  maintained  by  the  State. 

It  is  to  be  premised  that  the  Department  has 
been  organized  and  the  Commissioner  of  Educa- 
tion has  obtained  from  the  records  of  the  Census 
Bureau  the  actual  number  of  illiterates  in  each 
township,  school-district,  or  other  smallest  sub- 
division, of  each  county,  in  the  various  States,  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1880.  It  is  probable 
that  in  most  cases  this  minimum  subdivision 
would  be  the  township.  In  that  case  it  would 
be  necessary  to  obtain  from  other  sources  the  in- 
formation necessary  to  determine  approximately 
the  illiteracy  of  the  separate  school-districts. 
The  proportion  to  which  each  district  would  be 
entitled  could  easily  be  ascertained  by  requiring 
the  parties  applying  to  furnish  such  facts  as  might 
be  deemed  necessary  for  making  a  sufficiently  ac- 
curate apportionment. 

Under  these  circumstances,  School  District  No. 
3  of  Blackhawk  township,  Caswell  County,  North 


346  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

Carolina,  we  will  say,  makes  application  for  the 
portion  of  the  fund  which  may  be  assigned  to  it 
in  support  of  a  public  school  organized  under  the 
State  law  as  a  colored  school.     The  County  and 
State  Superintendents  indorse  the  application  and 
certify  that  one-fourth  of  the  colored  population 
of  said  township  reside   in   District    No.  3.     The 
Commissioner  ascertains  that  there  were  one  hun- 
dred colored  illiterates  in  the  township,  and,  there 
being  two  dollars  allowed   for  each  illiterate,  he 
notifies  the  applicants  that  upon  complying  with 
the  law  they  will  be  entitled  to  receive  the  sum 
of  fifty  dollars.     The  school  being  then  organized 
and  the  requirements  of   the  statute  during  the 
required    period    having   been  complied  with,  as 
shown  by  the  necessary  reports  and  verified  by 
such  vouchers  as  the  Commissioner  may  prescribe, 
as  well  as  the  fact  that  the  requisite  proportion 
of  the  expense  of  the  same  has  been  paid  by  the 
State,  the  county,  or  by  individual   contribution, 
a  check  for  that  amount  is  made  out  payable  to 
the  teacher  or  his  order  when  countersigned  by  the 
State  Superintendent,  through  whom  it  is  trans- 
mitted to  the   payee.      In    case  all   the  districts 
of  the  township  apply  even  this  simple  process 
might  be  much  abbreviated.    Thus  it  will  be  seen 


The  Method  of  Application. 


.47 


that  with  an  altogether  insignificant  expenditure, 
without  any  interference  with  the  State  system, 
the  money  appropriated  is  expended  upon  the 
very  spot  where  it  is  most  required  without  pos- 
sibility of  being  diverted  from  its  intended  pur- 
pose or  made  subservient  to  any  scheme  for  par- 
tisan advantage. 

The  following   table  exemplifies  the  plan    for 
States  of  the  Black  Belt  from  actual  facts  : 


TABLE    HH. 
Total  Amount  expended  for  Education  in    States  of  the  Black 
Belt  in   18S0:  and  Proportionate  Amount  receivable  from  an 
Annual  Appropriation  of  $10,000,000,  distributed  or  the  basis 
of  Illiterary  according  to  the  Census  of  iSSo. 


States. 


Alabama. 
Florida. . 
Georgia. 


Louisiana 

Mississippi.  .  .  . 
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina. 
Virginia 


Total, 


Expended. 


3-540.213 


Receivable. 


$433,131 

$694,631 

117  724 

123,499 

653,404 

834,005 

455-75S 

510,227 

679-475 

598,082 

3S3.709 

743,554 

367.259 

592,709 

452.693 

689,671 

4,791,373 


It  will  be  observed  that  almost  one-half  of  a 
fund  of  $10,000,000  would  have  gone  to  these  eight 
States,  and  would  have  exceeded  by  one-third  their 
entire  educational  appropriations.     The  disburse- 


34^  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ment  of  such  a  fund  by  the  Nation  in  the  manner 
proposed  would  not  only  stimulate  these  States 
to  increased  appropriations,  but  would  stir  up 
every  township  and  district  to  secure  its  proper 
share.  It  would  bring  into  every  household  a 
knowledge  of  the  fairness  and  beneficence  of  the 
national  government,  and  would  do  more  than  any- 
thing else  could  to  modify  that  extravagant  idea 
of  the  paramount  rights  of  the  individual  States 
which  was  the  shield  of  slavery  and  the  bulwark 
of  rebellion.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  fund  be 
merely  cast  into  the  treasuries  of  the  different 
States,  this  influence  will  not  only  be  lost,  but 
the  worship  of  the  Juggernaut  of  States'  Rights 
will  be  thereby  strengthened  and  confirmed.  It 
is  cheaper  to  uproot  this  dogma  with  spelling- 
books  than  with  bayonets. 


Whether  certainty,  simplicity,  and  effectiveness 
are  preferable  to  uncertainty,  doubt,  suspicion  of 
partisanship,  and  probability  of  waste  and  dis- 
affection, it  is  for  Cesar  to  decide. 


Objections    Considered, 


"\  7"ARIOUS  objections  are  made  both  to  the 
v  policy  and  legality  of  any  measure  propos- 
ing the  national  aid  to  education,  but  more  espe- 
cially to  one  which  does  not  put  the  distribution 
and  application  of  the  fund  entirely  within  the 
control  of  the  individual  States.  First  and  most 
important  of  these  objections  is  the  following  : 

Congress  has  not  the  constitutional  authority  to 
levy  taxes  or  appropriate  funds  for  such  purpose. 

This  objection  comes  too  late.  It  has  already 
been    determined    by  numerous  precedents  that 


35°  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

the  Government  has  such  power.  Under  various 
acts  nearly  two  billion  acres  of  the  public  do- 
main have  already  been  appropriated  for  the 
purposes  of  education.  Schools  have  been  estab- 
lished, funds  have  been  created  for  the  establish- 
ment in  different  States  of  institutions  of  a  pecu- 
liar class  or  character,  and  the  whole  course  of 
the  Government  tends  to  show  an  almost  univer- 
sal concurrence  in  the  idea  that  the  power  "  to 
promote  science  and  the  useful  arts"  must  in- 
clude that  master-key  to  all  science  and  art,  the 
general  intelligence  of  the  citizen  and  the  preva- 
lence among  all  classes  of  the  people  of  that 
rudimentary  knowledge  without  which  neither 
science  nor  art  can  flourish. 

But  in  the  view  which  we  have  taken  of  this 
subject  the  authority  of  Congress  to  appropriate 
funds  for  the  primary  education  of  the  citizen 
rests  upon  a  much  broader  basis — the  authority 
granted  in  the  Constitution  to  "  provide  for  the 
common  defense  and  general  welfare  of  the 
United  States."  It  rests  upon  the  same  funda- 
mental principle  as  the  various  acts  and  appropri- 
ations for  the  support  of  the  Military  Academy 
at  West  Point  or  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annap- 
olis,      The    great    controlling    purpose    of    such 


Objections  Considered,  351 

appropriation  is  to  secure  public  peace,  promote 
the  national  power,  and  establish  the  national 
welfare  and  prosperity,  by  giving  to  its  citizens 
an  opportunity  to  learn  the  duties  of  citizenship, 
to  perform  the  functions  devolved  upon  them  as 
component  elements  of  our  national  power,  to 
cement  and  strengthen  their  allegiance  and  devo- 
tion to  the  Government  and  the  principles  upon 
which  it  is  founded.  If  there  was  ever  a  measure 
proposed  which  was  clearly  and  unmistakably 
within  the  scope  and  purpose  of  this  broad  and 
essential  power,  it  is  the  one  which  we  are  now 
considering.  It  is  essential  to  the  common  de- 
fense because  it  tends  to  unity  of  sentiment,  sup- 
pression of  discord,  and  the  removal  of  causes 
which  might  easily  result  in  domestic  violence. 
It  promotes  the  national  welfare  because  it  en- 
ables the  citizen  to  comprehend  and  perform  his 
duties,  to  protect  himself  against  fraud  and 
violence,  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  rights 
and  privileges  conferred  upon  him ;  and  it 
strengthens  his  adhesion  and  devotion  to  the 
Government.  Moreover,  this  constitutional  ob- 
jection, it  will  be  observed,  whether  it  count  for 
much  or  little,  applies  just  as  strongly  to  the  one 
plan   of   distribution    as    to   the    other.      If    the 


35 2  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Nation  has  not  the  right  to  levy  taxes  and  dis- 
tribute funds  through  its  own  agencies,  it  very 
clearly  has  no  right  to  apportion  those  funds 
among  the  different  States. 

The  second  objection  is  that  the  general  govern- 
ment has  no  right  to  appropriate  funds  for  the 
benefit  of  classes  or  individuals. 

Those  who  urge  this  objection  seem  to  be 
laboring  under  the  impression  that  national  aid 
to  education  is  to  be  given  solely  for  the  benefit 
and  advantage  of  those  individuals  and  classes 
receiving  instruction.  Such  is  not  at  all  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  public  instruction,  whether  State 
or  National,  is  based.  The  State  does  not  edu- 
cate the  citizen  for  his  own  sake.  It  does  not 
bestow  the  rudiments  of  education  or  the  ele- 
ments of  science  for  the  sake  of  the  individual. 
The  whole  theory  of  public  instruction  is  based 
upon  the  principle  of  public  benefit  to  be  derived 
therefrom.  The  fact  that  the  individual  receives 
advantage  thereby  is  entirely  secondary  and  sub- 
ordinate to  this  main  object.  The  fact  that 
education  increases  individual  opportunity  and 
power,  opens  to  the  instructed  the  avenues  of 
wealth  and  prosperity,  enables  him  to  pursue 
avocations    from  which    he  would    otherwise   be 


Objections  Considered. 


JO  J 


excluded  —  in  short,  the  fact  that  intelligence 
directly  or  indirectly  elevates,  strengthens,  and  in 
all  respects  improves  the  individual,  while  a  very 
pleasant  and  agreeable  incident  of  public  instruc- 
tion, would  yet  constitute  an  entirely  insufficient 
reason  for  the  establishment  of  such  systems. 
No  fact  can  be  clearer,  both  from  fundamental 
reasoning  and  constitutional  consideration,  than 
the  proposition  that  a  government,  whether  State 
or  National,  has  no  right  to  tax  A  for  the  benefit 
of  B,  C,  or  D,  or  for  any  class  or  number  of  in- 
dividuals. It  is  only  upon  the  ground  that  the 
ignorance  of  B,  C,  and  D  is  an  element  of  weak- 
ness, expense,  or  peril  to  the  State  or  the  Nation 
that  it  becomes  permissible  to  employ  public 
funds  for  the  removal  of  such  peril  or  for  the 
enhancement  of  public  prosperity  by  the  lessen- 
ing of  expenditure  or  the  increase  of  productive 
capacity.  The  right  of  the  Nation  to  secure  the 
general, intelligence  of  its  citizens  is  even  more 
limited  than  this.  The  State  as  such — the  subor- 
dinate republic  of  our  Federal  Union — is  inter- 
ested directly  in  increasing  the  productive  capac- 
ity and  the  power  of  self-support  of  each  one  of 
her  citizens.  One  of  the  first  great  duties  of  a 
modern  government  is  to  .provide  for  the  support 


354  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

of  its  pauper  classes.  This  also  constitutes  one 
of  its  chiefest  burdens.  This  burden  is  greatly 
lessened  by  the  general  intelligence  of  the  citizen 
which  promotes  his  capacity  for  self-support  by 
opening  to  him  other  channels  and  fresh  opportu- 
nities for  exertion.  The  State,  therefore,  is  direct- 
ly interested  in  the  intelligence  of  its  entire  popu- 
lation. Schools  are  in  this  respect  as  in  some 
others  a  direct  investment  for  the  benefit  of  the 
commonwealth.  The  general  government  has  no 
such  direct  interest  in  the  intelligence  of  the 
masses.  The  support  of  the  poor,  outside  of  the 
District  of  Columbia,  in  no  case  becomes  a  charge 
upon  its  treasury.  Its  interest  in  the  citizen  is 
not  one  of  direct  pecuniaiy  advantage.  While 
the  prevalence  of  illiteracy  no  doubt  indirectly 
tends  to  reduce  its  revenues  by  repressing  enter- 
prise and  reducing  the  productive  capacity  of  the 
masses,  its  interest  in  their  development  is  of  a 
higher  and  less  material  character.  Still  it  is  the 
interest  of  the  general  public  and  not  that  of  the 
recipient  classes  which  is  to  be  subserved  by 
national  aid  to  primary  education.  As  ignorance 
is  dangerous  to  the  public  welfare,  so  intelligence 
is  favorable  to  it.  As  ignorance  of  the  duties  of 
the  citizen  necessarily-  implies  inability  for  their 


Objections  Considered,  355 

proper  discharge,  so  intelligence  presumes  the 
faithful  performance  of  such  duties.  The  princi- 
ple on  which  this  measure  depends,  therefore,  is 
not  the  benefit  of  any  particular  class  but  the 
general  advantage  of  the  entire  Republic. 

This  objection  is  especially  potent  with  those 
who  conceive  that  the  purpose  and  intention  of 
this  act  is  to  extend  some  special  favor  to  the 
colored  race.  While  it  might  be  within  the  pur- 
view of  the  powers  of  Congress  to  grant  to  this 
race  special  privilege  or  advantage  in  considera- 
tion of  the  circumstances  which  have  attended 
its  previous  history,  yet  such  cannot  properly  be 
accounted  the  purpose  of  this  measure.-  More 
than  one-third  of  the  recipients  of  direct  advan- 
tage therefrom  will  be  of  the  white  race ;  and  the 
indirect  advantage  to  accrue-  is  in  the  proportion 
of  seven  millions  of  blacks  to  forty-three  millions 
of  whites.  It  is  true  that  the  relations  which  our 
Government  has  sustained  to  the  colored  people 
in  the  past,  and  the  duties  which  it  has  placed 
upon  the  individuals  of  that  race  while  yet  in  a 
state  of  profound  ignorance  with  regard  to  their 
performance,  have  been  such  as  should  constitute 
a  most  potent  factor  in  inclining  every  right- 
minded    citizen    toward    the    accentanee    of    this 


356  An  Appeal  to  Casarl 

policy.  This  duty  becomes  incumbent  upon  us 
not  simply  because  education  will  be  a  direct  ad- 
vantage to  the  individuals  of  that  race,  but  be- 
cause the  national  honor  is  pledged — the  good 
faith  of  a  great  people  placed  in  pawn — with 
those  unfortunate  allies  whom  the  Nation  has 
abandoned  in  its  hour  of  prosperity.  We  gave 
them  liberty  which  we  coupled  with  the  duty  of 
citizenship.  We  put  into  their  hands  the  sword 
which  we  asked  them  to  use  for  the  national 
honor  as  well  as  for  individual  defense.  We  left 
them  ignorant  of  the  proper  exercise  of  the 
power  they  held,  defenseless  before  their  heredi- 
tary enemies,  the  sometime  foes  of  the  Republic. 
Yet  it  is  not  chiefly  for  their  advantage  that  this 
measure  of  justice  and  righteousness  is  proposed, 
but  to  redeem  the  honor  of  the  whole  people  and 
to  secure  the  safety  of  a  great  nation. 

Another  objection  made  to  this  measure  is  that 
a  large  portion  of  the  fund  will  be  expended  in  the 
attempt  to  educate  the  negro  and  prepare  him  for 
the  exercise  of  co-equal  power  in  the  Government, 
man  for  man,  witli  his  white  fellow-citizens,  and 
that  such  expenditure  is  simply  a  wasteful  attempt 
to  perform  an  impossibility. 

I    do     not     care     to     discuss     the     question. 


Objections  Considered.  357 

Whether  the  colored  man  is  the  equal,  the  infe- 
rior, or  the  superior  of  the  white  race  in  knowl- 
edge, capacity,  or  the  power  of  self-direction  has 
not  been  specifically  revealed  to  me.  I  have 
no  knowledge  in  regard  to  the  matter  beyond 
what  is  accessible  to  every  other  citizen.  Some 
things  are  self-evident,  and  among  these  is  the 
fact  that  every  argument  and  demonstration  by 
which  the  inherent  inferiority  of  the  African  of 
the  United  States  has  been  so  frequently  estab- 
lished has  been  shown  by  the  irrefragable  evi- 
dence of  experience  to  be  false.  Year  after  year, 
for  a  century,  it  has  been  dinned  into  the  ears  of 
the  American  people  that  the  African  could  not 
live  except  in  a  state  of  slavery.  Those  who 
boasted  of  having  converted  him  to  Christianity 
declared  his  inherent  barbarism  to  be  incurable. 
The  power  of  progress  and  development  was 
denied  him.  Only  the  form  of  man,  the  debased 
instincts  of  the  slave,  and  a  sufficiency  of  the  im- 
mortal principle  to  make  him  a  child  of  grace 
were  accorded  to  the  colored  man.  We  were  told 
that  he  would  not  work;  that  he  would  starve  in 
the  midst  of  profusion ;  that  idleness  was  not 
only  his  besetting  sin  but  his  irremediable,  de- 
fect ;  that  lust  and  vice  would  make  the  race  an 


358  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

uncontrollable  scourge  to  the  land  ;  that  there 
were  but  two  alternatives,  the  state  of  bondage 
or  utter  annihilation.  Twenty  years  of  liberty 
have  disproved  each  one  of  these  dicta.  Already 
there  are  proportionably  fewer  of  this  race  main- 
tained at  the  public  expense  than  of  the  white 
race.  The  idleness  which  was  to  destroy  has  re- 
sulted in  increased  production  of  all  the  staples 
of  that  region.  The  vice  which  was  to  over- 
whelm society  has  for  the  most  part  been  con- 
fined to  petty  crimes  and  misdemeanors  which 
slavery  encouraged.  Having  been  taught  by 
Christian  slavery  that  the  sacrament  of  marriage 
could  not  bind  their  race,  cast  adrift  with  no 
recognized  or  legal  family  ties,  the  great  bulk  of 
this  despised  people  recognized  the  moral  force 
of  previous  personal  association,  and  even  in  this 
respect  are  not  behind  those  classes  of  the  whites 
which  are  affected  with  like  ignorance  and  pov- 
erty. In  addition  to  all  this,  in  eighteen  years  of 
liberty  they  have  organized  thousands  of  effi- 
cient church-societies,  erected  all  over  the  South 
comfortable  houses  of  worship,  and,  with  all  their 
crudity  of  ideas  and  of  practice,  constitute  to-day 
perhaps  the  best  organized,  most  self-sacrificing 
body  of  professed  Christians  in  the  world.     This 


Objections  Considered.  359 

power  of  church  government,  religious  associa- 
tion, and  intelligent  management  and  direction  of 
church  affairs  —  the  accomplishment  of  really 
great  things  with  the  most  scanty  means,  the 
least  possible  opportunity,  and  under  the  most 
adverse  circumstances — would  seem  to  demon- 
strate that  the  colored  man  may  yet  constitute  a 
factor  in  republican  government  by  no  means 
to  be  despised. 

Whether  the  black  man  will  in  all  respects 
develop  an  absolute  equality  of  power  with  the 
white  is,  however,  a  question  that  cannot  yet  be 
answered  either  the  one  way  or  the  other.  So 
far  as  the  measure  under  discussion  is  concerned 
it  is  entirely  immaterial  whether  he  has  such  a 
capacity  or  not.  This  one  thing  we  do  know  : 
that  the  Nation  has  recognized  him  as  capable  to 
perform  the  duties  of  citizenship  even  without 
the  preparation  and  the  experience  which  the 
white  race  had  received  before  developing  such 
capacity.  Having  conferred  that  privilege  and 
duty  upon  him,  it  is  an  unavoidable  obligation 
that  we  place  before  him  every  possible  opportu- 
nity to  develop  whatever  power  he  may  possess. 
If  he  is  not  capable  of  competing  with  the  white 
race  after  enjoying  such  opportunity,  certainly  no 


360  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

harm  will  have  resulted  from  allowing  him  to 
approach  as  nearly  to  that  level  as  he  is  capable 
of  attaining.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  should  be 
that  his  capacity  is  not  materially  different  from 
that  of  the  white  man,  certainly  no  Christian 
people  can  be  excused  and  no  government  upon 
which  rest  such  obligations  as  we  have  recognized 
can  be  held  guiltless  if  they  fail  to  enable  him  to 
take  the  initial  step  in  the  race  of  progress  by 
granting  him  an  opportunity  to  obtain  the  rudi- 
ments of  an  education. 

There  are  some — more  than  would  generally  be 
supposed,  yet,  thank  God,  not  so  many  as  there 
might  be — who  urge  against  this  measure  that  it 
would  result  in  a  sacrilegious  disturbance  of  the 
ordained  and  established  relations  between  the 
races,  by  which  dominion  and  control  has  been 
given  to  the  whites,  and  menial  service  and  subjec- 
tion decreed  for  the  blacks. 

There  are  not  a  few,  especially  among  our 
Southern  brethren,  who  do  not  hesitate  to  declare 
that  the  divine  order  prescribes  subjection  of  the 
negro  to  the  control  of  the  white.  They  assert 
without  any  hesitation  that  it  is  the  undoubted  will 
of  the  Almighty  that  the  white  man  is  and  must  for- 
ever remain  the  undoubted  superior  and  the  right' 


Objections  Considered.  361 

ful  controller  and  director  of  the  destiny  of  the 
colored  race.  The  belief  in  this  peculiar  dogma  is, 
perhaps,  more  widely  spread  than  one  might  sup- 
pose it  possible  that  it  should  be.  Its  constant  rep- 
etition, year  after  year  and  generation  after  gen- 
eration, has  unquestionably  served  to  fix  it  in  the 
minds  of  the  Southern  whites  as  a  truth  which,  if 
not  absolutely  demonstrable  from  the  words  of 
revelation,  is  yet  so  indubitable  that  it  may  as 
well  be  accepted  as  divine.  This  was  the  sup- 
posed premise  on  which  negro  slavery  rested  its 
claim  to  recognition  as  a  Christian  institution.  It 
was  never  contended  that  the  right  existed  under 
any  circumstances  to  enslave  a  white  man.  There 
were  undoubtedly  some  instances  in  which  it  was 
done,  but  such  acts  were  always  not  only  in  vio- 
lation of  law  but  opposed  to  the  public  sentiment 
and  religious  conviction  of  the  entire  people  of 
the  South.  The  defense  set  up  in  favor  of 
American  slavery,  distinguishing  it  from  that 
which  existed  among  the  early  Roman  be- 
lievers, was  based  entirely  upon  the  fact  that  the 
American  slave  was  of  the  African  race.  It 
was  freely  admitted  that  under  no  circumstances 
could  the  right  exist  to  enslave  one  of  Caucasian 
birth  ;  but  it  was  maintained  by  the  great  body  of 


362  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

Southern  Christians  that  the  distinction  of  race 
and  color  was  designed  to  mark  a  difference  of 
right  and  destiny  which  the  Supreme  Being  had 
for  his  own  inscrutable  purposes  established.  The 
same  belief  in  a  modified  form  still  exists  and 
actuates  the  conduct  and  convictions  of  a  very 
large  proportion  of  the  Southern  people.  They 
do  not  admit  that  the  colored  man  can  ever  be- 
come entitled  to  share  in  the  duty  of  mutual  con- 
trol and  direction  that  rests  upon  the  white  citi- 
zen. He  is  regarded  as  having  been  divinely  set 
apart  for  a  peculiar,  specific,  and  inferior  destiny. 
To  attempt  to  enlarge  his  sphere  of  action,  to 
seek  to  elevate  him  to  the  level  of  the  white,  or 
permit  him  to  claim  as  of  right  equal  dignity, 
authority,  and  capacity,  is  to  impugn  the  wisdom 
and  decrees  of  the  Almighty.  We  do  not  know 
whether  this  belief  is  well  founded  or  not.  We 
have  no  special  knowledge  of  the  divine  purpose 
in  establishing  distinctions  of  race,  nor  do  we 
believe  that  any  other  human  being  has.  At  any 
rate,  the  events  of  the  past  quarter  of  a  century 
would  seem  to  be  sufficient  to  convince  any  one 
of  the  possibility  of  mistake' in  regard  to  such  a 
theory.  There  was  evidently  some  sort  of  error 
in  the  doctrine  so  universally  accepted  and  taught 


Objections  Considered.  363 

at  the  South  with  regard  to  the  divine  nature  of 
slavery.  There  must  have  been  some  sort  of  mis- 
take in  regard  to  the  capacity  of  the  negro  for 
self-support.  Time  has  demonstrated  that  emanci- 
pation is  not  the  forerunner,  of  extinction  through 
any  natural  or  physical  cause.  It  is,  therefore,  at 
least  possible  that  the  related  theory  in  regard 
to  the  purpose  intended  to  be  subserved  by  the 
distinction  of  race  and  color  may  also  be  errone- 
ous. Where  so  many  theories,  each  one  resting 
in  some  degree  upon  the  other  and  all  of  them 
being  merely  speculative  conclusions  from  the 
same  group  of  facts,  have  been  proved  false  by  the 
irresistible  logic  of  events,  it  is  well  not  to  regard 
the  other  doctrines  of  this  group  of  related  theo- 
ries with  too  much  positiveness  of  conviction.  It 
would  seem  to  be  altogether  possible  that  the 
whole  idea  of  the  inferiority  of  the  blacks  to  the 
whites  might  yet  disappear.  Whether  it  be  true 
or  false,  however,  one  thing  is  certain  :  the  white 
race  can  never  prove  or  maintain  its  superiority 
simply  by  excluding  the  negro  from  all  opportu- 
nity for  growth  and  development. 

The  objection  most  frequently  urged  against  this 
measure  at  the  North  is  that  the  ignorance  which  it 
is  sought  to  eradicate  is  the  result  of  slavery,  which 


364  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

was  purely  a  Southern  institution,  maintained  by 
Southern  power  and  defended  by  Southern  arms. 
Because  of  this  fact,  it  is  urged  that  no  duty  rests 
upon  the  citizen  of  the  Northern  States  to  remedy 
evils  for  which  the  South  alone  is  responsible. 

If  the  premises  on  which  this  assumption  rests 
were  true,  the  view  would  still  be  too  narrow  and 
contemptible  for  an  enlightened  Christian  people 
to  take.  If  the  South  were  alone  responsible  for 
slavery  and  its  resultant  ignorance  and  poverty, 
it  would  still  be  the  narrowest  and  most  short- 
sighted policy  that  could  possibly  be  devised 
which  in  the  face  of  existing  facts  should  refuse 
to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  cure  the  evil.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  argument,  however,  such  is  not  the 
case.  The  action  of  our  national  government 
from  the  very  outset  tended  toward  the  encour- 
agement and  perpetuation  of  slavery.  From  first 
to  last  the  national  power  was  exerted  for  its 
extension  and  perpetuity.  Its  fruits  were  shared 
by  the  North  and  South  alike.  The  labor  of  the 
slave  enriched  the  manufacturer  of  New  England 
as  well  as  the  planter  of  Virginia.  The  whole 
national  life  was  tainted  with  its  injustice.  As  a 
people,  no  State  or  section  can  claim  exemption 
from  responsibility  for  this  crime   of  crimes.     In 


Objections  Considered.  365 

every  act  of  oppression  that  makes  up  the  vast 
category  of  evil  which  American  slavery  wrought, 
the  Nation  shared  responsibility  for  every  crime 
with  the  State  and  the  individual.  The  evils 
resulting  from  slavery  are  part  and  parcel  of  the 
inheritance  which  the  Republic  of  yesterday 
bequeathed  to  the  Nation  of  to-day. 

It  is  further  urged  by  many  of  the  Souther  71  peo- 
ple that  the  education  of  the  negro,  instead  of  tend- 
ing to  his  development  and  equipment  for  the  duties 
of  life  and  citizenship,  has  a  directly  contrary  effect, 
and  is  in  fact  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  South. 

From  the  standpoint  which  these  persons  oc- 
cupy, there  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  the  view 
which  they  express.  The  spread  of  intelligence 
among  the  colored  people  of  the  South  unques- 
tionably leads  to  the  comprehension  and  asser- 
tion on  their  part  of  rights  and  privileges  to  which 
they  believe  themselves  to  be  entitled,  but  which 
a  majority  of  the  white  race  there  conceive  to  be 
strictly  limited  to  individuals  of  the  Caucasian 
race.  The  first  result  of  knowledge  is  to  teach 
the  individual  his  rights;  the  next,  to  inspire 
him  to  assert  and  maintain  them.  To  educate 
the   colored    man    is  to    enable  him    to    compre- 


366  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

hend  exactly  what  his  rights  and  duties  are ; 
to  show  him  how  those  rights  may  be  peace- 
fully and  lawfully  secured,  and  teach  him  how 
those  duties  should  be  performed.  The  preva- 
lence of  general  intelligence  among  the  colored 
people  of  the  South  would  unquestionably" 
tend  to  disturb  the  peace  of  those  communi- 
ties, if  that  peace  be  dependent  upon  the  subjec- 
tion of  the  colored  man  to  the  will  and  authority 
of  the  white.  If  by  peace  be  meant  that  state  of 
quiet  submission  which  permits  a  minority  if  it  is 
white  to  override  the  power  and  wishes  of  the 
majority  if  it  is  black,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  general  intelligence  would  constitute  a  very 
serious  menace  to  its  continuance.  A  peace 
which  is  based  upon  the  disregard  of  right  by  one 
portion  of  the  community  and  quiet  submission 
thereto  by  another  portion  is  always  likely  to  be 
disturbed  whenever  the  subjugated  element  comes 
clearly  to  understand  not  only  what  are  its  rights, 
but  how  they  may  be  secured  and  •  enforced. 
Knowledge,  however,  as  we  have  seen,  inevitably 
tends  to  the  establishment  of  that  genuine  peace 
which  depends  alone  upon  the  recognition  of  the 
rights  of  all  classes  and  individuals  by  each  and 
every  other  individual  and   class   in  the  commu- 


Objections  Considered.  367 

nity.  Instead  of  being  a  menace  against  the 
peace  of  Southern  society,  then,  the  general  edu- 
cation of  both  white  and  black  illiterates  would 
tend  to  the  establishment  of  a  peace  which  not 
only  recognizes  but  holds  sacred  the  rights  of  all. 

There  is  another  principle  connected  with  the 
idea  of  the  State's  right  to  control  the  education 
of  its  citizens  that  it  would  be  well  to  keep  in 
mind.     It  is  this  : 

The  State s  light  to  educate  her  citizens  does  not 
include .  or  presuppose  the  right  to  keep  them  in 
ignorance. 

This  is  a  principle  which  is  apt  to  escape  the 
consideration  of  men  raised  in  a  political  school 
one  of  the  basis-principles  of  which  was  that  one 
great  class  of  the  citizens  of  a  community  should 
not  be  allowed  to  acquire  even  so  much  as  the 
elements  of  knowledge.  A  people  who  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  century  regarded  the  colored  man's 
exclusion  from  all  educational  opportunity  not 
only  with  equanimity,  but  as  a  question  of  in- 
dubitable right  and  necessity,  can  hardly  be  ex- 
pected to  have  reached  that  period  of  develop- 
ment in  regard  to  general  education  when  the 
public  sentiment  shall  accord  to  white  and  black 
with  equal  heartiness  the  public  aid.     The  State 


368  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

has  undoubtedly  a  right — it  not  only  has  a  right, 
but  it  is  its  bounden  duty — to  provide  for  the 
rudimentary  instruction  of  all  its  citizens.  Such 
right  is  not  an  exclusive  one,  however.  Any 
individual  or  society  has  an. equal  right  to  con- 
tribute toward  the  enlightenment  of  any  indi- 
viduals or  classes  or  even  the  entire  community 
of  a  State.  The  right  of  the  general  government 
to  aid  in  the  education  of  its  citizens  does  not 
in  any  manner  exclude  or  conflict  with  the  right 
of  the  State,  nor  relieve  it  from  any  responsi- 
bility or  duty.  On  the  other  hand,  the  plan 
which  we  have  proposed  simply  says  to  every 
State,  "We  will  give  to  every  free  school  which 
you  may  establish  a  fund  proportionate  to  the 
number  of  illiterates  within  the  district  for  which 
it  is  designed,  whenever  we  are  satisfied  by 
proper  testimony  that  such  a  school  has  been 
established  and  continued  for  a  certain  specified 
time,  and  has  had  such  average  attendance  as  to 
render  it  likely  to  have  achieved  something  in 
the  direction  of  mitigating  the  evils  of  illiteracy." 
Instead  of  interfering  with  the  action  of  the 
State  in  this  direction,  it  offers  a  direct  and  tan- 
gible bonus  for  every  exertion  that  the  State  may 
make.     It   is   only  in  case  of   the  State's  delin- 


Objections   Considered.  369 

quency  that  the  Nation  says  to  the  individual,  to 
the  citizens  of  the  township  or  the  authorities  of 
the  municipality : 

"  If  you  will  establish  public  schools  of  a  spe- 
cific character,  if  you  will  secure  a  certain  average 
attendance,  if  you  will  see  that  those  schools  are 
maintained  for  a  certain  specified  period  in  each 
year,  we  will  give  to  you  a  sum  proportionate  to 
the  number  of  illiterates  within  the  territory 
represented,  for  the  support  of  such  schools." 

Instead  of  being  in  conflict  with  the  rights  of 
the  State,  it  is  much  farther  removed  from  such 
conflict  than  either  of  the  other  measures  thus 
far  proposed.  All  of  those,  while  they  contem- 
plate the  payment  of  the  fund  directly  into  the 
State  treasury  and  its  administration  solely  by 
the  officers  of  the  State,  yet  propose  to  affix  to 
this  giftj  benefaction,  or  contribution  certain 
conditions,  which  conditions  of  themselves  are  an 
insult  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  State.  If  the 
distribution  is  to  be  made  to  the  States  at  all,  it 
must  be  made  as  of  right.  It  does  not  become, 
then,  an  appropriation  strictly  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose, but  it  is  something  which  the  State  has  a 
right  to  demand  that  the  Government  shall  do. 
To  attempt  to  bind  a  sovereign  State  with  con- 


2)jo  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ditions  subsequent  is  in  itself  absurd ;  but  it  is  a 
direct,  positive,  and  undeniable  interference  with 
the  rights  of  the  State  to  authorize  any  officer, 
commission,  or  body  of  men  authorized  and  or- 
ganized under  and  by  virtue  of  authority  of  an 
act  of  Congress,  to  consider,  investigate,  or  pass 
upon  the  action  of  a  sovereign  State.  Congress 
has  the  authority  to  give  to  the  various  States 
any  portion  of  the  national  income  that  it  may 
see  fit  to  distribute  among  them,  and  it  may 
advise  or  request  that  such  fund  shall  be  used  by 
each  of  the  States  in  a  certain  particular  manner, 
but  it  has  no  right  or  authority  to  inquire 
whether  its  wish  has  been  complied  with  or  its 
fancied  conditions  performed  after  it  has  deliv- 
ered over  the  funds.  The  control  which  the 
general  government  has  over  either  the  legisla- 
tive or  administrative  officers  of  the  States  is 
solely  the  negative  power  which  resides  in  the 
Federal  judiciary.  Whenever  the  State  law  is  in 
conflict  with  the  Constitution  of  the  .United 
States  or  with  the  laws  of  Congress  duly  enacted 
thereunder,  it  becomes  nugatory  by  the  judg- 
ment of  the  Federal  tribunal.  Not  all  the 
power  of  the  Nation,  however,  can  lawfully  re- 
quire a  State  Legislature  to  enact  any  specific 


Objections  Considered.  371 

law  or  punish  any  executive  officer  for  the  per- 
formance or  non-performance  of  an  act  which  he 
is  not  specifically  required  to  do  or  not  to  do  by 
some  Federal  statute.  The  action  of  the  several 
States  in  regard  to  the  fund  after  the  same  or 
any  portion  thereof  had  been  distributed  could 
not  be  questioned,  much  less  affected,  by  any  de- 
partment of  the  Federal  Government  ;  neither 
could  an  appropriation  made  for  a  series  of  years 
be  diverted  for  any  portion  of  that  time  by  the 
non-performance  on  the  part  of  the  several 
States  of  conditions  which  Congress  has  no 
power  to  impose. 

There  has  been  made,  in  objection  to  the 
special  plan  of  procedure  which  we  have  advo- 
cated, this  suggestion  : 

Such  a  plan  of  distribution  is  likely  to  arouse 
party  rancor. 

In  one  sense  this  may  be  considered  an  objec- 
tion. It  is  unquestionably  desirable,  abstractly 
considered,  that  all  good  things  in  government 
should  be  adopted  by  unanimous  consent  :  but 
they  never  are.  Anything  that  is  worth  doing  is 
certain  to  have  opponents.  If  there  are  two  pos- 
sible ways  of  accomplishing  a  good  thing,  men 
are  very  likely  to  have  strong  preferences  in  re- 


$72  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

gard  to  them.  The  very  large  sums  of  money  that 
would  be  distributed  by  means  of  this  measure 
throughout  the  States  of  the  South  make  it  a 
very  natural  thing  that  the  political  leaders  of 
that  region  should  desire  not  only  to  have  con- 
trol of  this  fund,  but  to  have  it  appear  to  their 
constituents  of  both  races  as  if  the  largess 
flowed  through  their  hands,  and  that  this  bounty 
came  from  the  State,  and  not  the  Nation.  The 
natural  inclination  of  the  political  thinker  of  the 
South,  whatever  his  rank  or  class  in  society,  is  to 
magnify  inordinately  the  doctrine  of  State  rights. 
"  I  went  with  my  State,"  is  the  almost  universal 
excuse  for  engaging  in  rebellion ;  and  it  is  always 
a  matter  of  surprise  to  the  person  urging  it  that 
any  Northern  man  should  at  all  question  its  suf- 
ficiency. From  Robert  E.  Lee  down  to  the 
humblest  private  in  the  Confederate  army  this 
reason  or  excuse  was  urged  with  the  utmost  sin- 
cerity. To  a  Southern  man  the  allegiance  which 
binds  him  to  his  State  is  an  umbilical  tie ;  that 
which  he  owes  to  the  Nation,  a  remote,  theoreti- 
cal, intangible  thing.  That  this  school  of  politi- 
cal thinkers  should  prefer  that  the  fund  should 
be  placed  entirely  in  the  control  of  the  States, 
or  at  least  hampered  only  with  certain  nominal 


Objections  Considered.  2>7Z 

conditions  which  could  in  no  event  be  enforced, 
instead  of  being  distributed  directly  to  the  ben- 
eficiaries by  the  national  government,  is  only 
natural.  Not  that  this  method  of  distribution  in 
any  manner  conflicts  with  the  theory  of  State 
Rights,  even  in  its  broadest  acceptation,  but  sim- 
ply because  its  operation  would  tend  to  exalt  the 
Nation  rather  than  the  State  in  the  eyes  and 
affections  of  the  Southern  people,  or,  more  prop- 
erly perhaps,  to  put  the  Nation  upon  the  same 
level  in  their  regard.  In  this  sense  it  would 
unquestionably  awaken  partisan  conflict.  A 
part  of  the  more  hot-headed  and  short-sighted 
of  the  Representatives  of  the  South  would  un- 
questionably oppose  its  adoption  and  might 
possibly  waste  a  good  deal  of  rhetoric  in  trying 
to  prove  it  an  insult  to  the  Southern  people. 
Senator  Butler  of  South  Carolina  has  put  himself 
on  record  as  opposed  to  the  measure  in  any  form. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why.  It  would 
be  inconsistent  with  his  record  to  do  otherwise. 
The  hostility  of  such  partisans  as  he  is  not  only 
to  be  expected  but  desired  for  any  good  meas- 
ure. At  the  same  time  there  are  very  few  of 
them  that  would  stand  up  and  oppose  such  an 
appropriation,  however  it  was  to  be  distributed. 


374  ^n  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

It  would  be  a  very  hazardous  thing  for  a  Repre- 
sentative from  Alabama,  for  instance,  to  cast  his 
vote  against  the  appropriation  of  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year  for  the  education  of  the 
people  of  Alabama  simply  because  the  Govern- 
ment proposed  to  pay  it  to  the  teachers  instead 
of  to  the  politicians  of  the  State.  The  question 
which  those  who  raise  this  objection  should  ask 
themselves  is  whether  it  is  better  to  have  cer- 
tainty, economy,  and  efficiency  in  the  administra- 
tion of  such  a  fund  or  a  political  love-feast  at  the 
time  of  its  adoption.  In  the  history  of  this  coun- 
try, harmonious  legislation,  or  legislation  designed 
to  harmonize  parties  and  sections,  has  not  usually 
proved  the  most  efficient  and  valuable.  Every 
great  measure  of  public  policy  from  which  have 
flowed  lasting  and  beneficent  results  has  been 
hotly  contested,  perhaps  for  years,  before  it  as- 
sumed the  form  of  law.  Partisan  warfare  is  simply 
the  seven-fold  heated  furnace  in  which  the  gold  of 
truth  is  smelted.  A  measure  that  drops  into  one 
House  of  Congress  like  oil  and  dribbles  slowly 
through  them  both  into  the  statute-book,  dissem- 
inating the  fragrance  of  harmony  and  good-will, 
and  winning  the  assent  of  all,  usually  bears  a 
most  dubious  complexion.     We  have  the  record 


Objections  Considered.  375 

of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  history  of  the 
Fugitive-Slave  Law,  the  remembrance  of  a  hun- 
dred half-way  measures  designed  to  unite  hostile 
thought,  secure  peace  and  harmony,  and  avoid 
partisan  conflict  in  the  Nation.  Of  later  years 
we  have  that  notorious  and  peculiar  example 
of  harmony  that  annually  thrills  the  hearts  of 
Congressmen  expectant  of  further  honor,  the 
"  River  and  Harbor  Improvement  Bill,"  which 
passes  perhaps  without  division,  with  joined 
hands  and  a  universal  chorus  of  good-will.  It  is 
always  the  climax  of  the  legislative  millennium. 
Party  is  forgotten,  strife  is  laid  aside,  even  per- 
sonal hostility  is  for  the  time  held  in  abeyance ; 
all  other  feelings  and  considerations  give  way  in 
the  face  of  this  measure  of  universal  harmony. 
All  bickering  and  strife  in  that  millennial  hour  is 
forgotten,  and  only  universal  happiness  prevails, 
for  the  space  of  one  whole  day, 

"  So  hallowed  and  so  gracious  is  the  time." 

The  plan  of  distribution  which  we  propose  is 
not  likely  to  be  cursed  with  a  harmony  of  this  sort 
— a  harmony  the  last  analysis  of  which  is  plun- 
der. It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  however,  that  a 
measure  one  of  the  results  of  which  undoubtedly 


376  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

would  be  not  only  to  elevate  the  colored  man  in 
the  scale  of  humanity,  but  to  enable  him  to  ex- 
ercise the  political  power  which  has  been  con- 
ferred upon  him  according  to  the  dictates  of  his 
own  conscience ;  which  would  prepare  him  to  de- 
fend himself  in  public  as  well  as  in  private  affairs 
against  the  tyranny  of  fraud  ;  which  would  arm 
his  manhood  with  the  sword  of  intelligence,  and 
strengthen  his  courage  with  the  consciousness  of 
power  which  comes  from  knowledge — it  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  such  a  measure  would  fail  to  meet 
with  the  sharpest  opposition,  when  we  consider 
that  in  one  form  or  another  the  rights,  privileges, 
and  destinies  of  that  race  have  formed  the  basis 
of  political  divergence  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury. The  real  question  in  this  case  is  not,  What 
will  please  everybody?  but,  What  will  bring  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number?  Our 
"Government  by  the  people"  is  also  "for  the 
people,"  and  in  its  life  as  in  its  birth  its  noblest 
results  have  accrued  not  from  concord  but  from 
conflict — not  from  any  smiling  and  unforced  as- 
sent upon  the  part  of  all,  but  from  the  inflexible 
enforcement  of  the  convictions  of  the  majority. 
The  fact  that  any  proposed  measure  is  likely  to 
provoke   partisan    strife,    is     more     frequently   a 


Objections  Considered.  377 

badge  of  merit  than  a  basis  for  sound  objection. 
If  the  partisan  can  base  his  opposition  upon  good 
and  valid  grounds,  showing  harmful  results  likely 
to  accrue  to  the  citizen  therefrom,  then  his  hos- 
tility is  to  be  welcomed.  It  is  for  this  very  pur- 
pose that  parties  are  constituted,  in  order  that  in 
the  conflict  of  mind  with  mind  the  underlying 
principles  upon  which  every  measure  of  public 
policy  claims  to  be  based  may  be  completely  un- 
derstood, thoroughly  discussed,  and  fully  estab- 
lished before  it  obtains  the  sanction  of  the  legis- 
lative body.  Such  discussion  is,  in  this  case, 
altogether  welcome.  If  any  individual  or  party 
can  show  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  that 
it  is  better  for  them,  as  a  people,  that  the  money 
to  be  appropriated  in  aid  of  national  education 
should  be  shoveled  in  bulk  into  the  treasuries  of 
the  different  States  rather  than  carefully,  eco- 
nomically, and  effectively  administered  by  the 
national  government  in  some  such  manner  as  we 
have  proposed,  no  one  will  experience  greater 
pleasure  in  the  adoption  of  such  a  policy  than 
the  writer  of  these  lines. 

There  remains  one  general  objection  to  national 
aid  to  education,  specially  applicable  to  the  view 
which  we  have  taken  of  the  subject,  namely,  that 


$J%  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

education  of  itself  is  not  sufficient  to  make  a  ma?i 
a  good  citizen. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  in  regard  to  this  propo- 
sition. A  man  may  have  all  knowledge  and  pos- 
sess all  wisdom  and  yet  be  a  tyrant,  a  usurper,  a 
"  boss,"  a  traitor,  or  a  conspirator.  Mere  intelli- 
gence is  not  enough  to  insure  the  performance 
of  public  duties,  any  more  than  it  is  a  sufficient 
safeguard  against  private  crime.  Knowledge 
simply  gives  to  the  individual  the  power  to  be  a 
good  citizen,  not  the  inclination.  It  shows  him 
how  the  power  which  he  holds  by  means  of 
the  ballot  may  be  exercised  either  for  good 
or  for  evil.  How  he  will  exercise  it  depends 
very  largely  upon  his  antecedent  development. 
Knowledge,  whether  it  be  much  or  little,  is  only 
an  instrumentality  by  which  a  good  or  evil  incli- 
nation acts.  And  while  it  is  true  that  an  edu- 
cated man  may  not  be  a  good  citizen  because  he 
will  not  perform  the  duties  which  he  understands, 
it  is  very  certain  that  the  ignorant  man  cannot 
exercise  the  power  of  the  citizen  with  any  sort  of 
assurance  that  he  is  acting  rightly.  Knowledge 
does  not  of  necessity  make  any  man  honest ;  but 
it  enables  him  to  detect  other  men's  dishonesty. 
Intelligence  does  not  make  a  man  courageous  and 


Objections  Considered.  379 

incorruptible  ;  it  only  shows  him  how  he  may  use 
his  courage  and  how  he  may  defend  himself 
against  fraud.  Intelligence  simply  furnishes  the 
motive  power  by  which  manhood  may  make  it- 
self effective  in  political  affairs  as  well  as  in  any 
other. 

Political  error  is  possible  to  the  most  highly 
cultured  community,  and  it  is  not  an  infrequent 
thine  to  find  the  best-educated  class  in  a  commu- 
nity  adopting  some  pet  theory  which  if  carried 
into  effect  would  result  in  the  most  imminent 
public  disaster.  The  Southern  slave-owners  were 
unquestionably  a  highly  intelligent  and  well- 
educated  class  of  men.  They  were  also  men  of 
as  keen  natural  instincts  and  as  good  and  patri- 
otic bias  as  could  be  found.  Blinded  by  the  fact 
of  slavery,  however,  they  became  the  most 
dangerous  enemies  the  country  has  ever  known. 

Our  Government  is  the  first  great  republic  of 
the  world,  indeed  the  first  nation,  to  have  tried 
the  experiment  of  self-government  on  the  broad 
basis  of  including  within  the  governing  power  all 
the  males  of  mature  age.  This  theory  is  founded 
upon  the  hypothesis  that  the  majority  of  all  com- 
munities are  right-thinking,  honest,  patriotic,  and 
brave.     They  are  supposed  to  be  honest  enough 


380  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

to  decide  (without  being  influenced  by  base 
motives  or  narrow  individual  considerations)  what 
measures  are  for  the  public  weal  and  what  party 
is  most  likely  to  carry  out  and  enforce  such  meas- 
ures. They  are  supposed  to  be  too  honest  to  be 
willing  to  sell  the  safety  and  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  the  future  for  a  trivial  pleasure  of  the 
present.  They  are  supposed  to  be  earnest 
enough  in  their  convictions,  loyal  enough  to  their 
duty  and  the  interests  of  the  country  to  be  ready 
and  willing  to  maintain  those  convictions  at 
whatever  hazard  against  fraud  or  violence. 

If  these  basis-hypotheses  on  which  our  Govern- 
ment was  founded  are.  incorrect,  then,  indeed,  it 
matters  little  what  may  be  the  character  of  our 
controlling  masses.  But  if  our  Government  is 
founded  upon  the  true  principles  of  democracy,  if 
self-government  is  a  possibility  to  any  great  nation, 
then  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  every 
individual  constituting  the  governing  power  in 
such  nation  should  be  not  only  honest  and  patri- 
otic and  courageous,  but  that  he  should  have 
knowledge  to  inform  his  honesty,  knowledge  to 
sustain  his  patriotism,  knowledge  to  direct  his 
courage.  The  ignorant  man  is  as  the  breath  of 
life  to  the  nostrils  of  the  demagogue.     He  is  the 


Objections  Considered,  381 

material  which  the  ambitious  and  unscrupulous 
leader  uses  to  promote  his  own  unrighteous  ends. 
While  intelligence  may  in  some  cases  lead  to 
abuse  of  power,  ignorance  renders  almost  certain 
its  misuse.  The  voter  who  drops  into  the  box 
a  ballot  which  he  cannot  read  is  like  a  blind  man 
wielding  a  sword :  he  may  slay  his  enemy,  but  he 
is  quite  as  likely  to  destroy  his  friend. 


From   Different  Standpoints, 

HHERE  are  some  views  of  this  subject  that 
are   common    to    more    or  less    numerous 
classes,  which  cannot  well  be  omitted  from  the 
discussion  of  the  question. 


The  Old  Abolitionists. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  curious  things  in  history 
that  the  particular  type  of  American  thinkers 
who  had  given  the  best  part  of  their  lives  to  the 
consideration  of  the  colored  man's  relation  to  the 
whites  in  a  state  of  slavery  should  so  frequently 


From  Different  Standpoints,        38 


j 


be  among  the  most  apathetic  in  regard  to  his 
present  condition  and  relations.  They  seem  to 
have  accepted  as  undeniable  the  conclusion  that 
the  formal  obliteration  of  the  legal  right  to 
restrain  the  colored  man  of  his  liberty  was  the 
end  of  slavery,  and  the  end  also  of  duty  to  the 
enslaved  race.  Mr.  Greeley's  celebrated  edito- 
rial entitled  "  Root,  Hog,  or  Die"  no  doubt  ex- 
pressed the  sentiment  of  a  great  portion  of  this 
class  who  were  apprehensive  that  the  colored 
people  would  become  a  race  of  moral,  political, 
and  economical  mendicants.  It  was  for  a  long 
time  regarded  as  a  doubtful  question  whether 
the  freed  slave  would  have  stamina  enough  to 
earn  his  daily  bread  and  become  a  self-supporting 
element  of  our  national  life.  It  was  perhaps 
generally  believed  that  liberty  and  civilization 
would  kill  him.  It  was  no  doubt  feared  by  his 
best  friends  that  he  would  become  a  general 
beggar — a  sort  of  universal  tramp ;  and  his  for- 
mer friends  felt  called  upon  distinctly  to  inform 
him  that  he  must  live  by  his  own  efforts.  In- 
stead of  justifying  this  belief,  the  very  reverse 
has  been  the*  case.  No  people  having  so  little 
ever  asked  for  less.  Only  for  schools  and 
churches   have    they   asked   assistance,     Indeed, 


3^4 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar* 


the  proportion  of  defective  and  dependent  classes 
among  them  is,  under  the  circumstances,  amaz- 
ingly small.  When  we  consider  the  circum- 
stances surrounding  the  two  races  in  the  eight 
States  we  have  been  considering,  and  remember 
that  in  1865  the  white  race  in  those  States  prob- 
ably possessed  one  thousand  times  the  tangible 
wealth  of  the  blacks ;  that  in  these  States  there 
are  as  many  blacks  as  whites,  and  that  they  are 
still,  as  a  race,  mere  laborers  and  capable  only  of 
self-support  by  the  results  of  daily  wages — in 
view  of  these  facts,  how  amazing  are  the  follow- 
ing tables  (II-MM),  compiled  from  the  census  of 
1880! 
Three   motives   undoubtedly   lay  at   the   root 

TABLE   II. 

Insane,  1880. 


States 

Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi 

North  Carolina _. 

South  Carolina 

Virginia 

Total 


From  Different  Standpoints,        385 

of  the  movement  for  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery: 

1.  A  conviction  of  the  unrighteousness  and  in- 
justice of  slavery; 

2    A  sentiment  of  pity  for  the  slave; 


TABLE   JJ. 
Idiotic,  18S0. 


States. 


Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi.  . .  . 
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 
Virginia 

Total 


Colored. 


TABLE    KK. 

Paupe?s  in  Almshouses,  1880. 


States. 


Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi. . .  . 
North  Carolina 
South  Carolina 
Virginia 

Total.    ... 


;86 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


3.  A  belief  that  slavery  would  ultimately  en- 
danger the  peace  of  the  Republic. 

These  very  same  motives  should  now  stimulate 
the  same  class  of  people  to  a  like  activity  in  pro- 
motion of    national  aid  to  the  education,  espe- 


TABLE   LL. 
Blind,  1880. 


States. 


Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi. 
North  Carolina. 
South  Carolina. 
Virginia 


Total. 


White. 


755 
94 
861 
366 
468 
:,i6i 
434 
897 


5,036 


Colored. 


644 
121 

773 
479 
603 
704 
666 
813 


4,S03 


TABLE    MM. 
Deaf  Mutes,  18S0. 

States.  White 

Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi 

North  Carolina 

South  Carolina 

Virginia 

Total !      3.334 


Colored. 


405 

288 

55 

63 

0  499 

320 

32S 

196 

317 

2S9 

724 

308 

301 

263 

705 

293 

From  Different  Standpoints,        387 

daily,  of  the  recent  slave  and  his  descendants. 
Their  ignorance  is  a  part  of  the  injustice  of 
slavery:  the  evils  they  suffer  because  of  it  ap- 
peal to  pity  quite  as  keenly  as  the  ills  of  bondage 
ever  did  ;  the  danger  that  seemed  likely  to  occur 
from  slavery  was  remote  and  insignificant  com- 
pared with  that  which  now  impends  because  of 
the  ignorance  which  slavery  entailed. 

There  is  no  question  but  much  of  the  indiffer- 
ence displayed  at  the  North  in  regard  to  the 
state  of  affairs  at  the  South  since  the  close  of  the 
war  has  arisen  from  a  fear  that  the  colored  race 
would  become  a  dependent  class  rather  than  self- 
helpers.  The  past  twenty  years,  as  we  have  seen, 
have  most  abundantly  dissipated  this  apprehen- 
sion. 

It  is  said  that  the  progress  of  the  African  is 
slow.  Upon  this  continent  it  has  been  the  swift- 
est that  history  has  ever  recorded.  Less  than 
three  hundred  years  measure  to  this  race  the 
distance  between  the  most  helpless  barbarism 
and  its  present  condition.  Slavery  was  a  harsh 
teacher,  but  she  gave  to  the  colored  man  many  a 
precious  lesson.  He  has  learned  the  need  of 
exertion  ;  he  has  come  to  understand  the  power 
of  law.     The  elements  of  our  Anelo-Saxon  civili- 


J 


SS  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


zation  have  become  a  part  of  his  moral  nature. 
He  may  not  always  have  learned  the  lessons 
perfectly,  but  the  rudiments  he  has  thoroughly 
acquired.  Place  him  beside  his  congener  on  the 
African  coast  to-day,  and  we  see  the  difference 
which  three  centuries  of  exposure  to  our  civiliza- 
tion and  a  breath  of  freedom  have  made.  Al- 
ready the  blacks  have  taken  the  first  and  hardest 
steps  in  the  upward  course.  They  have  gathered 
wealth  with  wonderful  assiduity  and  under  un- 
heard-of difficulties.  The  fact  that  the  estimated 
value  of  their  holdings  in  the  State  of  Georgia  is 
six  millions  of  dollars,  when  twenty  years  ago 
they  had  not  as  many  cents,  is  of  itself  enough  to 
astound  the  universe.  As  a  rule  they  are  frugal 
livers  and  steady  workers.  The  charge  of  collec- 
tive, general  laziness  not  only  comes  with  a  bad 
grace  from  the  whites  of  the  South,  but  is  re- 
futed with  tremendous  force  by  the  increased 
production  of  the  staples  which  depend  upon 
their  labor.  That  there  are  more  idlers  among 
them  than  when  the  white  race  spent  its  energies 
in  driving  them  afield  is  no  doubt  true ;  but  the 
workers  do  more,  because  they  have  the  stimulus 
of  self-interest  and  the  hope  of  reward  for  their 
toil.     Their  rate  of  wages  is  so  low  in  comparison 


From  Different  Standpoints,         389 

with  that  of  laborers  at  the  North  that  it  seems 
incredible  that  they  should  make  any  saving 
therefrom.  During  this  time,  too,  they  have 
gathered  the  rudiments  of  knowledge :  weakly, 
ludicrously,  it  may  be,  sometimes  only  half-com- 
prehending the  words  whose  pronunciation  they 
have  mastered;  but  again  shedding  new  light, 
with  a  shrewd  philosophy,  upon  the  wisest  utter- 
ances of  the  subtlest  authors.  From  all  these 
facts  we  may  well  conclude  that  the  colored  man 
of  the  South,  on  his  own  merits  as  a  self-helper, 
struggling  under  incredible  disadvantages  to 
accomplish  better  things,  has  a  right  to  expect 
the  active  co-operation  of  every  philanthropist, 
and  more  especially  every  one  who  helped  at  all 
the  overthrow  of  slavery,  in  obtaining  from  the 
general  government  such  aid  as  will  supplement 
his  own  efforts  to  place  his  children  on  a  higher 
plane  than  he  himself  can  hope  to  reach. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  consider 
the  status  of  the  colored  race  as  one  of  the  fac- 
tors of  our  criminal  population.  This  is  a  very 
important  matter,  and  one  which  should  by  no 
means  be  passed  lightly  by.  The  following 
table  presents  the  data  of  those  confined  for 
crime   and  awaiting   trial  in   the   States  we    are 


390 


An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 


considering  at   the   date   of  the   enumeration  of 

1880. 

TABLE   NN. 

Imprisoned  for  Crime,  18S0.      Including  those  held  for  trial,  in 

Jails  and  Penitentiaries. 


States. 


Alabama 

Florida 

Georgia 

Louisiana 

Mississippi 

North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina. 
Virginia 


White.  Colored. 


Total. 


1,884 


221 

i,i77 

42 

233 

231 

1,606 

230 

845 

153 

1,176 

601 

1,018 

56 

586 

350 

1,204 

7,S45 


That  ignorance  is  the  nurse  of  crime  there 
is  no  room  to  doubt.  That  four-fifths  of  the 
colored  race  are  illiterate  is  of  itself  a  sufficient 
reason  for  a  great  disparity  in  the  ratio  of  crimi- 
nals among  the  two  contrasted  races.  There 
are,  however,  some  other  special  considerations 
which  ought  not  to  be  forgotten. 

The  first  of  these  is  the  fact  that  Slavery  was 
an  institution  especially  adapted  to  the  nurture 
and  encouragement  of  crime.  It  obliterated  the 
ties  of  family,  and  taught  that  the  sacrament  of 
marriage  and  the  law  of  chastity  did  not  apply  to 
the  colored  race.     It  prescribed  statutes  of  such 


From  Different  Standpoints.        391 

palpable  injustice  as  to  break  down  the  slave's 
regard  for  law.  By  unremitting  oppression  it 
encouraged  him  to  transgress.  The  temptation 
to  take  what  the  law  gave  to  his  master  was  ever 
present  in  his  own  person.  The  fact  that  his 
labor  was  taken  by  another  without  compensation 
was  a  constant  inducement  for  him  to  steal.  The 
fact  that  he  was  the  victim  of  violence  inclined 
him  to  appeal  to  force  when  under  the  influence 
of  rage.  The  fact  that  the  master's  lust  fed  on 
his  wife  or  daughter  without  restriction  was  a  bad 
example  by  which  to  enforce  the  restraint  of 
passion.  Considered  in  the  light  of  this  fearful 
preparation  for  crime,  these  figures  seem  less 
appalling. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten,  either,  that  there  are 
in  these  States  not  far  from  fifteen  thousand  com- 
mitting magistrates  every  one  of  whom,  it  is  be- 
lieved, is  of  the  white  race.  There  may  be  a  few  of 
the  colored  race  who  have  that  power,  but  certainly 
not  enough  to  affect  the  general  result.  There 
are  about  the  same  number  of  sheriffs,  deputies, 
and  constables,  of  whom  it  is  possible  that  one- 
tenth  may  be  of  the  colored  race  or  allied  to  it  in 
political  belief.  Of  the  judges  of  higher  courts 
having   criminal  jurisdiction   it   is    believed    that 


39 2  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

there  are  not  more  than  three  or  four  in  these 
eight  States  who  are  not  politically  predisposed 
against  the  negro.  There  are  perhaps  a  score  of 
colored  lawyers  in  the  same  region.  So  that  it 
will  be  seen  that,  a  priori,  the  machinery  of  the 
law  is  prejudiced  against  the  colored  man  accused 
of  crime.  Considering  the  past  and  present  re- 
lations of  the  races,  it  is  impossible  that  this 
should  not  tell  against  the  blacks  in  the  ratio  of 
convictions.  It  is  not  necessary  to  allege  cor- 
ruption or  conscious  bias  on  the  part  of  these 
officials.  The  fact  is  apparent  that  in  numerous 
cases  the  colored  man  cannot  have  anything  like 
"  a  white  man's  chance"  before  the  courts.  In 
many  cases,  too,  the  colored  man  is  unable  to 
employ  counsel,  and  for  that  reason  often  loses 
the  protection  which  the  law  is  supposed  to  give 
the  citizen. 

Besides  this,  the  temptation  to  injustice  is  very 
great.  The  fact  that  conviction  of  even  the 
lightest  crime  that  can  be  classed  as  a  felony  serves 
to  disfranchise  the  criminal  is  itself  a  serious  influ- 
ence among  a  magistracy  who  are  almost  univer- 
sally opposed  to  the  colored  man's  being  allowed 
to  exercise  political  power. 

Another  serious  element  of  disadvantage  which 


From  Different  Standpoints. 


ovo 


must  not  be  forgotten  is  the  fact  that  any — 
even  the  slightest — taking,  using,  and  removing  of 
the  crop  raised  by  the  laborer  who  cultivates 
land  "  on  shares,"  before  the  final  division 
with  the  landlord,  constitutes  larceny.  The  un- 
scrupulous landlord  is  enabled  to  bring  this 
charge  after  the  greater  part  of  the  work  of  the 
crop  is  done,  and  by  securing  the  laborer's  con- 
viction becomes  entitled  to  the  whole  crop,  the 
laborer  being  unable  by  reason  of  his  imprison- 
ment to  complete  his  contract.  That  many  such 
cases  'occur  is  not  a  matter  of  doubt. 

So,  too,  in  many  other  respects  the  laws  are 
framed  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  black.  Be- 
sides that  he  is  seldom  able  to  give  security  for 
costs  ;  and  long  {erms  in  the  penitentiary,  where 
he  is  leased  out  for  hire,  are  the  result. 

The  writer  saw  once  in  a  Southern  court,  on 
the  same  day,  a  young  colored  man  of  sixteen  or 
eighteen  sentenced  to  two  years  in  the  peniten- 
tiary for  stealing  a  pair  of  gloves,  worth  perhaps 
a  dollar,  from  the  counter  of  a  country  store,  and 
a  young  white  man  of  about  the  same  age,  per- 
haps a  little  older,  let  off  on  suspended  judg- 
ment and  payment  of  costs  after  conviction  for 
stealing  a   pair  of  boots  from    a   private  house, 


394  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

broken  into  during  the  absence  of  the  occupants. 
In  both  cases  it  was  a  first  offense.  The  colored 
man  was  disfranchised  :  the  white  man  was  not. 

Considering  all  these  disadvantages,  it  may 
fairly  be  urged  in  the  colored  man's  behalf  that 
given  "  a  white  man's  chance"  and  equal  educa- 
tional facilities,  he  would  very  soon  reduce  the 
ratio  of  crime  at  least  to  a  parity  with  the  white 
race.  This,  of  course,  is  a  matter  in  regard  to 
which  there  can  be  no  reliable  statistics ;  but  the 
pathetic  record  that  now  stands  against  him,  in- 
stead of  prejudicing  any  one  to  his  detriment, 
ought  to  incline  every  kindly  Christian  heart  to 
aid  in  removing  every  obstacle  from  his  pathway 
and  obliterating  every  excuse  the  past  or  present 
may  seem  to  offer  for  the  crimes  he  may  commit. 
As  has  been  elsewhere  stated,  the  ante-bellum 
friends  of  the  negro  were  too  much  inclined  to 
expect  unmixed  good  in  his  life  as  a  free  man. 
They  have  not  usually  paused  to  consider  that  not 
only  his  past  estate  but  his  present  condition  is 
very  far  from  affording  him  an  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity with  the  white  man,  and  that  the  greatest 
cause  of  this  unequal  chance  is  the  ignorance 
that  slavery  engendered. 


From  Different  Standpoints.        395 

The  Republican  Party. 
This  party  is  so  thoroughly  committed  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  negro's  equality  of  right,  by  the 
legislation  of  the  past  twenty  years,  that  it  would 
seem  almost  as  absurd  for  one  professing  its 
tenets  to  object  to  this  essential  supplement  of 
its  Reconstructionary  legislation  as  it  would  be  for 
him  to  cast  a  ballot  in  favor  of  the  re-establish- 
ment of  slavery.  That  party,  by  every  conceiv- 
able declaration,  argument,  and  act,  has  declared 
the  colored  man  to  be  justly  and  properly  en- 
titled to  an  equality  of  power  with  the  white 
man  in  shaping  the  character  of  our  Government, 
both  State  and  National.  Knowing  the  race  to 
be  wholly  illiterate,  absolutely  without  expe- 
rience in  public  affairs,  and  still  bound  under  the 
thralldom  of  centuries  of  slavery,  it  not  only  ex- 
tended to  him  the  power  and  privilege  of  the  bal- 
lot, but  it  laid  upon  him  the  solemn  duty  of  the 
citizen.  It  placed  upon  the  shoulders  of  every 
adult  male  of  this  race,  as  well  as  upon  the  poor 
whites  of  the  South  who  were  generally  dis- 
franchised by  previous  Constitutional  provisions, 
just  as  much  responsibility  for  the  destiny  of 
fifty  millions  of  people  as  rests  upon  the  shoul- 


396  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

ders  of  the  wisest  and  best   man  that  casts  his 
ballot  into  the  urn  of  fate. 

But,  aside  from  these  considerations,  every 
member  of  the  Republican  Party  is  bound  by  still 
stronger  ties  of  honor.  It  was  at  the  solicitation 
of  that  party  that  the  slave  offered  his  life  for  the 
life  of  the  Nation.  At  its  earnest  importunity 
the  freedman  first  undertook  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling, doubt  and  dread,  the  duty  of  the  citizen. 
And  only  by  his  aid  has  this  party  maintained 
its  ascendency  since  that  time.  This  party 
armed  the  negro  with  a  sword  and  refused  to 
grant  him  a  shield.  For  twenty  years  it  has  re- 
mained deaf  to  his  supplication  for  what  is  just 
as  important  for  his  political  existence  as  the 
breath  of  life  to  his  physical  being.  Whatever 
other  evils  the  negro  might  have  been  called 
upon  to  suffer,  one  thing  is  certain :  that  the 
myriad  outrages  of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan,  the  bar- 
barities of  Bull-Dozers  and  Rifle-Clubs,  would 
not  have  fallen  to  his  lot  but  for  the  action  of 
the  Republican  Party  in  making  him  a  political 
factor.  The  enfranchisement  of  the  colored  man 
at  the  close  of  the  war  was  unquestionably  an  act 
of  wisdom  and  necessity  which  national  honor 
imperiously  demanded.     To  grant  the  privileges 


From  Different  Standpoints.        $97 

and  responsibilities  of  power,  however,  without 
providing  means  for  its  secure  and  proper  ex- 
ercise was  an  act  of  such  apparent  stupidity  and 
such  evident  peril  to  its  recipients  as  to  smack 
of  cowardice  and  treachery  on  the  part  of  those 
who  claimed  credit  for  bestowing  favor.  The 
barbarity  which  attended  the  revolution  by 
which  the  minority  swept  aside  the  rule  of  the 
majority  at  the  South  is  as  nothing  beside  the 
cold-blooded  cruelty  of  that  Republican  who, 
looking  upon  the  events  of  the  past  twenty 
years,  deliberately  refuses  to  give  his  voice  and 
influence  in  favor  of  extending  to  the  eighty  per 
cent  of  colored  illiterates  of  the  South  an  oppor- 
tunity to  equip  themselves  for  the  performance 
of  the  duty  which  this  party  imposed  upon  them. 
We  have  poured  fifty  millions  of  dollars  into  the 
mouths  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  hope  that  trade 
may  some  time  be  coaxed  to  find  its  way  through 
them:  but  to  the  poor  black  mouths  that  have 
pleaded  with  us  for  knowledge  to  enable  a  help- 
less people  to  perform  the  tasks  we  imposed 
upon  them  we  have  given  not  one  cent.  To  the 
Republican  Party  this  measure  is  simply  an  op- 
portunity to  retrieve  eighteen  years  of  blunder- 
ing stupidity  and  an  unexampled  record  of  faith- 


39S  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

lessness  and  cruelty  to  the  most  devoted  allies  a 
political  party  ever  knew. 

The  Democratic  Party 
While  the  Republican  Party  is  estopped  from 
opposing  this  measure  by  reason  of  its  record  in 
favor  of  the  enfranchisement  of  the  negro  and 
the  policy  of  Reconstruction,  the  Democratic 
Party  is  logically  debarred  from  opposing  such  a 
measure  by  the  course  which  it  has  taken  upon 
the  same  questions.  This  party  has  always  stub- 
bornly contended,  ever  since  the  negro's  right  to 
liberty  or  the  freedman's  right  to  power  first 
came  in  question,  that  he  was  unfitted  for  the 
trust  of  citizenship.  Throughout  the  South  this 
claim  has  generally  been  broadly  based  upon  the 
fact  of  color.  The  Southern  Democrat  does  not 
hesitate  to  avow  his  belief  that  the  colored  man 
is  not,  and  can  never  become,  fit  to  exercise  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship  in  a  republic. 
At  the  North  the  party  has  not  generally 
espoused  this  view,  but  has  planted  itself 
squarely  upon  the  declaration  that  at  the  time  of 
his  enfranchisement  and  until  the  present,  he 
was,  and  has  continued,  as  a  race,  incapable  of 
the  due  and  proper  discharge  of  the  responsibili- 


From  Different  Standpoints.        399 

ties  of  citizenship.  In  this  view  of  the  fact  they 
were  unquestionably  right.  The  action  of  the 
Republican  Party  in  conferring  the  power  of  the 
ballot  upon  the  mass  of  ignorant  voters  at  the 
South  without  making  any  provision  for  their 
enlightenment  and  instruction  was  unquestionably 
an  act  of  the  most  egregious  folly,  as  well  as  the 
utmost  inhumanity  to  the  colored  race.  Having 
been  accomplished,  however,  and  being  an  act 
which  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  undo,  the  ques- 
tion which  presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  the 
patriotic  Democrat  is,  whether  it  is  better  to 
seek  to  remedy  this  evil  by  endeavoring  to 
remove  the  defect  or  to  leave  the  matter  to  drag 
along  until  it  brings  in  its  train  the  most  terrible 
of  calamities.  Either  the  position  of  the  South- 
ern Democrat  in  regard  to  the  inherent  incapa- 
city of  the  colored  man  is  correct  or  it  is  incor- 
rect. If  it  be  the  true  doctrine  in  regard  to  the 
race,  then  twenty  years  of  earnest  effort  toward 
his  enlightenment  and  development  will  demon- 
strate that  fact  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  whole 
land  and  the  whole  world.  If  after  that  time 
he  shall  not  have  shown  himself  unmistakably 
able  to  acquire  the  intelligence  and  develop 
the  courage  and  power  necessary  for  the  perfor- 


4-00  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

mance  of  the  duties  of  citizenship,  no  one  will 
thereafter  be  heard  to  claim  that  he  is  capable 
of  such  development.  It  will  then  have  been 
proved  that  the  white  Democracy  of  the  South 
were  right  beyond  all  question  in  their  claim  that 
this  should  be  "  a  white  man's  government"  and 
that  the  colored  man  should  be  allowed  no 
power,  authority,  or  voice  in  the  shaping  of  its 
policy  or  the  determination  of  its  destiny.  He 
must  then  go  to  the  wall  without  hope  of  further 
opportunity.  If,  however,  after  this  twenty 
years  of  experiment  and  the  honest  application 
of  the  one  or  two  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
that  it  is  proposed  to  expend  for  the  eradication 
of  illiteracy  at  the  South,  it  shall  be  demon- 
strated beyond  a  peradventure  that  the  colored 
man  in  America  is  able  to  become  a  worthy 
factor  in  our  government  and  civilization,  cer- 
tainly there  is  not  one  of  any  party  or  any 
faction,  whose  opinion  would  be  worth  consider- 
ing in  connection  with  this  question,  who  will 
dare  to  say  that  he  should  be  debarred  from  like 
privilege  and  opportunity  with  his  fellow-citizens 
of  the  white  race.  In  either  point  of  view  it 
must  be  admitted  that  even  as  an  experiment  it 
is  one  well  worth  trying.     If  it  fail,  it   is  cheaper 


From  Different  Standpoints.        401 

to  settle  the  question  thus  than  by  conflict  and 
slaughter.  If  it  succeed,  the  Nation  has  saved 
itself  from  committing  a  still  greater  and  more 
heinous  wrong  against  humanity  and  right. 

In  no  other  peaceful  manner  can  this  question 
be  decided.  The  rest  of  the  Nation  and  the 
world  will  never  admit  the  theory  of  the  South- 
ern Democrats  that  God  has  made  the  colored 
man  radically  inferior  to  the  white  race  until  at 
least  one  generation  shall  have  been  given  "  a 
white  man's  chance"  to  acquire  knowledge  and  a 
fair  opportunity  to  display  capacity.  The  best 
way  to  substantiate  this  theory,  therefore,  is  to 
give  the  negro  a  fair  field  and  full  opportunity  to 
demonstrate  that  the  contrary  doctrine  is  falla- 
cious. 

Moreover,  if  the  inferences  we  have  drawn 
from  the  facts  set  forth  in  this  book  be  correct, 
the  black  majorities  in  the  South  are  going  to 
increase  year  by  year;  their  peaceful  suppression 
is  going  to  be  more  and  more  difficult,  not  to  say 
impossible ;  the  only  possible  hope  for  a  Demo- 
cratic utilization  of  a  fair  proportion  of  this  vast 
mass  of  political  power  and  multitude  of  ballots 
lies  in  a  growth  of  intelligence  among  ignorant 
blacks  and  whites  alike,  and  a  gradual  dying  out 


4-02  An  Appeal  to  C<zsar. 

of  the  inherited  instincts  of  race-prejudice  ;  and 
the  wise  Democrats — wise  not  merely  in  patriot- 
ism but  also  in  partisanship — will  act  for  to- 
morrow and  not  blindly  for  to-day  alone. 

The  Church. 
One  hesitates  to  address  to  any  one  professing 
a  belief  in  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  anything 
like  a  specific  argument  or  appeal  in  favor  of  any 
measure  the  sole  object  and  purpose  of  which  is 
the  general  betterment  of  humanity.  It  would 
seem  that  one  who  claimed  in  any  degree  to  be 
controlled  by  the  command,  "  Do  good  to  all 
men,"  must  feel  as  if  an  injunction  were  laid  upon 
him  actively  and  earnestly  to  promote  such  a 
measure  as  we  have  discussed.  It  is  one  which 
no  person  has  yet  been  bold  enough  to  aver  will 
accomplish  aught  of  harm,  and  one  which  cannot 
fail  to  result  in  very  great  good.  Considered  as 
an  act  of  humanity,  it  will  constitute  an  inspira- 
tion to  many  millions.  Considered  as  a  religious 
agency,  it  opens  the  Word  of  God  to  the  blind. 
Regarded  as  a  measure  of  peace,  it  gives  promise 
of  averting  bloodshed.  Regarded  as  an  act  of 
national  policy,  it  offers  hope  of  increased  pros- 
perity.    Taken  in    connection  with   that    myste- 


*  From  Different  Standpoints.        403 

rious  providence  which  made  the  greed  of  man 
the  instrumentality  for  bringing  the  colored  race 
to  these  shores,  which  appointed  for  the  lot  of 
the  negro  Christian  stripes  and  tears  and  woe, 
but  kept  forever  green  in  his  heart  the  faith  in 
that  "year  of  jubilee"  which  should  bring  to  him 
deliverance — considered  as  a  part  of  this  wonder- 
ful sequence  of  marvelous  events,  it  would  seem 
that  every  believer  must  regard  this  measure  as 
an  opportunity  to  offer  the  sacrifice  of  good 
works  in  extenuation  of  the  evil  wrought  before 
by  those  who  bore  the  Christian  name  and  with 
the  sanction  of  Christian  churches. 

The  Southern  White  Man. 
If  the  negroes  are  increasing  more  rapidly  than 
the  whites  of  the  South  ;  if  the  whites  are  migrat- 
ing from  the  oFder  Slave  States  in  much  greater 
proportion  than  the  blacks ;  if  the  number  of 
white  persons  of  foreign  birth  resident  in  the 
South  is  constantly  decreasing;  if  the  number  of 
white  persons  of  Northern  birth  who  are  migrat- 
ing to  these  States  is  very  much  less  than  the 
number  of  white  persons  who  are  emigrating 
thence  to  the  North — if  these  are  facts,  then  the 
Southern  white  man  has  a  greater  interest   in  the 


404  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

measure  under  consideration  than  any  other  class, 
unless  it  be  the  colored  people  of  that  section 
themselves.  No  one  knows  so  well  as  he  what 
this  condition  of  affairs  signifies  to  him  and  his 
children.  No  one  is  so  well  able  to  understand  the 
horrors  that  must  ensue  if  the  day  should  ever 
come  when  the  colored  man  should  rise  up 
against  the  white,  not  in  fitful,  isolated  spasmodic 
ebullition,  but  with  the  wild  rage  of  a  half-bar- 
baric race,  stung  to  the  quick  with  oppression 
and  maddened  with  the  desperate  determination 
to  conquer  for  themselves  liberty,  equality,  and 
justice,  or  to  face  the  dread  alternative  of  death. 
The  writer  knows  full  well  that  very  few  of  the 
white  men  of  the  South  believe  that  this  time  can 
ever  come.  They  think  the  black  man's  capacity 
for  endurance  has  been  divinely  adapted  to  the 
infinity  of  their  arrogance.  They  do  not  deem 
it  possible  that  the  colored  people  as  a  race,  no 
matter  if  they  were  a  thousand  to  one,  would 
ever  dare  to  rise  up  and  attempt  to  achieve  by 
force  anything  that  the  whites  might  not  be  will- 
ing to  yield  to  them  as  of  grace.  They  know 
well,  however,  that  if  such  a  conflict  should  come 
in  the  eight  States  which  we  have  named,  in  the 
end  there  could   be  but  two  alternatives — either 


From  Different  Standpoints.        405 

the  colored  race  must  be  destroyed  or  the  white 
race  must  be  expelled.  Conflict  between  the 
two — open,  avowed,  and  universal — means  nothing 
more  and  nothing  less.  In  this  conflict,  even  if 
it  should  come  to-morrow,  they  know,  too,  that  the 
odds  are  not  so  much  against  the  colored  race  as 
they  would  seem  to  be.  The  advantage  of  arms 
and  organization  is  with  the  whites  ;  the  advantage 
of  opportunity  is  with  the  blacks.  The  white  race 
is  open  to  two  lines  of  attack  :  the  colored  people 
are  exposed  to  but  one.  The  white  man  is  in 
peril  both  of  person  and  property:  the  colored 
man  has  only  his  life  to  lose.  Six  millions  of 
people  with  a  proved  capacity  of  doubling  their 
number  every  twenty  years  cannot  always  be 
held  in  subjection  by  terror.  If  the  white  man  is 
to  rule  the  South  hereafter,  he  must  rule  by  co- 
operation with  the  colored  race,  and  by  their 
assent,  because  of  his  superior  wisdom,  sagacity, 
and  prudence.  If  there  is  to  be  peace  at  the 
South  for  any  considerable  time  in  the  future, 
it  must  come  by  the  enlightenment  of  ignorance, 
by  the  removal  of  prejudice,  by  the  exercise  of 
toleration.  If  it  be  dangerous  to  the  peace  of 
those  communities  to  give  to  colored  majorities 
to-day   the    right    to    rule,    it    will    be    far    more 


406  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

dangerous  to  prohibit  them  from  obtaining  the 
intelligence  and  the  capacity  which  shall  enable 
them  to  exercise  the  power  of  the  ballot  with 
wisdom  and  discretion  until  it  shall  be  impossible 
longer  to  bar  them  from  its  exercise  by  the  show 
of  force  or  practice  of  fraud.  That  time  is  not 
very  far  distant ;  and  no  class  of  our  people 
except  the  colored  man  himself  has  so  intense  an 
interest  in  the  elevation,  intelligence,  and  develop- 
ment of  the  black  race  as  the  white  people  of  the 
South.  With  them  it  must  ultimately  become  a 
question  of  possible  collaboration  with  the  blacks 
upon  terms  of  equality  for  the  public  good,  or  of 
massacre  for  the  public  peace.  The  colored  race 
must  be  made  fit  to  exercise  joint  dominion  with 
the  whites,  or  enough  of  them  killed  from  time  to 
time  to  make  the  rest  of  them  willing  to  remain  in 
subjection.  Neither  of  these  may  be  an  alto- 
gether pleasant  prospect  for  the  Southern  white 
man  to  contemplate  for  himself  and  his  children, 
but  none  other  is  possible.  The  blacks  will  mul- 
tiply, they  will  grow  in  strength  and  wealth  and 
knowledge,  whether  they  receive  aid  from  the 
Government,  from  the  States  in  which  they  dwell, 
from  the  people  with  whom  they  mingle,  or  not. 
The   question    for   the    Southern   white   man    to 


From  Different  Standpoints.        407 

answer  for  himself  and  for  his  children  is  whether 
it  is  better  to  promote  the  improvement  of  the 
colored  race  by  education  or  to  leave  them  in 
their  present  estate  and  take  the  chances  that 
may  attend  upon  their  future.  It  is  hardly  pos- 
sible that  any  man  who  shall  coolly  and  deliber- 
ately consider  these  things  in  the  light  of  the 
peace  and  happiness  of  future  generations  will 
not  conclude  that  the  safest,  wisest,  and  best 
policy  to  pursue  is  to  do  whatever  may  be  done 
to  enlighten  the  ignorance  of  both  races  and  to 
promote  the  exercise  of  that  spirit  of  toleration 
on  the  part  of  both  which  alone  can  secure 
peace,  harmony,  and  prosperity  for  the  future. 


Will  Caesar  Hear? 


DO  not  know.  What  is  written  herein  has 
■*■  been  written  in  the  hope  that  attention  may 
be  called  to  what  seems  to  me  the  greatest  of  all 
perils  to  our  land.  Because  I  believe  that  the 
people  have  only  thoroughly  to  comprehend  an 
evil  in  order  to  secure  its  extermination,  I  have 
— under  difficulties  that  few  of  its  readers  will 
ever  realize — laid  this  appeal  before  our  Caesar, 
and  leave  the  matter  to  the  decision  of  the 
Nation  without  concern  as  to  the  result.  If  the 
danger  be   not   real,  no  harm  can  arise   from   its 


Will  Ccesar  Hear?  409 

consideration.  A  peril  that  is  fully  understood 
is  already  half  overcome.  Slavery  would  have 
been  harmless  to  the  Nation  had  we  but  half 
comprehended  its  power  for  mischief.  It  was 
dangerous  only  because  its  power  was  despised. 
We  thought  Mammon  stronger  than  Moloch, 
and  believed  that  gold  was  a  certain  remedy  for 
the  prejudices  of  race  and  caste.  We  paid  dearly 
for  our  indifference. 

Perhaps  I  ought  to  offer  something  of  apology 
for  having  written  again  of  what  so  many  wiser 
men  declare  that  the  people  will  not  hear  or 
think.  I  would  have  kept  silent  had  I  dared.  No 
one  bewails  the  facts  I  have  been  called  upon  to 
discuss  more  than  I.  No  one  regards  with  more 
of  apprehension  the  result,  or  more  keenly  fears 
lest  the  remedy  so  long  delayed  should  come  too 
late  to  forestall  the  danger. 

In  excuse  for  having  written,  let  me  only  say 
that  this  is  no  new  thought,  no  sudden  thrill  of 
apprehension,  and  not  by  many  my  first  attempt 
to  direct  remedial  attention  in  this  direction.  In 
January,  1870,  while  the  terrors  of  Ku-Kluxism 
were  at  their  fiercest,  I  wrote  to  the  President  of 
the  United  States  these  words  : 
"  One  of  the  chief  causes  of  these  evils  is  the  ignorance 


4io  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

and  consequent  weakness  of  those  classes  who  are  in 
accord  with  the  Reconstructionary  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment. The  only  remedy  for  this  is  general  education. 
It  will  act  slowly  but  surely.  It  is  no  magic,  patent 
nostrum,  but  is  the  only  remedy  that  will  cure  the 
disease,  and  the  general  government  is  the  only  power 
that  can  apply  it. 

"  If  the  Government  will  place  side  by  side  with  the 
collector  of  its  revenue  the  school-house  and  the  teacher, 
thousands  who  now  recognize  only  the  power  of  the 
Government,  find  that  irksome  and  believe  it  hostile, 
will  recognize  its  beneficent  aspect,  and  indifference  will 
give  way  to  cordial  interest  and  support.  In  my  opinion 
the  simplest,  cheapest,  and  surest  way  to  eradicate  in  the 
mind  of  the  ordinary  Southern  man  that  overweening 
estimate  of  the  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  by  means  of 
which  the  Confederacy  commanded  his  devotion  is  to 
impress  upon  his  consciousness  by  daily  demonstration 
the  fact  that  the  Nation  is  aiding  directly  in  the  educa- 
tion of  his  children." 

In  December  of  that  year  I  presented  a  me- 
morial of  like  purport  to  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate. In  February  of  187 1  I  sought  access  to  the 
columns  of  a  leading  magazine  in  order  to  pre- 
sent the  matter  and  my  observations  and  conclu- 
sions more  fully.  The  reply  of  the  manager  was 
that  he  did  not  "  think  the  matter  of  sufficient 
public  interest  to  warrant  the  publication  of  the 


Will  Ccesar   Hear?  411 

article."  A  few  weeks  after  I  was  allowed  to 
state  it  in  one  of  the  most  obscure  columns  of  a 
great  daily.  It  was  referred  to  in  a  three-line 
editorial  as  "  a  curious  theory." 

In  1872  I  submitted  a  printed  memorial  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  setting  forth 
in  brief  the  main  elements  of  the  doctrine  that 
general  education  was  an  essential  supplement  of 
Reconstruction  and  the  only  permanent  pacifica- 
tor of  the  South.     It  concluded  in  these  words  : 

"  School-houses  are  better  than  bayonets.  Knowledge 
alone  can  kill  prejudice.  Education  is  the  only  reliable 
guarantee  of  peace  and  good  order.  Instruction  is  the 
best  defense  for  the  humbler  citizens  of  a  community. 
It  is  far  cheaper  for  the  Government  to  provide  education 
than  to  attempt  to  go  on  without  it." 

I  never  heard  from  this  at  all. 

This  matter,  however,  because  of  the  apparent 
failure  of  the  Reconstruction  Acts  to  secure  the 
pacification  of  the  South,  and  the  terrible  devel- 
opments of  the  census  of  1870  in  regard  to  illit- 
eracy, made  a  profound  impression  on  the  mind 
of  President  Grant.  After  long  and  anxious 
consideration  he  determined  to  recommend  to 
Congress  a  remedy  embracing  two  distinct  fea- 
tures.    (1)  A  constitutional   amendment    exclud- 


412  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

ing  from  the  elective  franchise,  so  far  as  the 
choice  of  national  officers  was  concerned,  all 
illiterate  males  who  might  come  of  voting  age 
after  a  specified  time,  say  ten  years.  (2)  His  un- 
erring sense  of  justice,  however,  led  him  to 
couple  with  this  penalty  of  disfranchisement  for 
ignorance  the  frank  admission  that  it  ought  not 
to  be  enforced  unless  the  Nation  should  first 
provide  ample  opportunity  for  enlightenment. 
This  wise  recommendation  fell  on  evil  times.  A 
personal  warfare  was  already  raging  between  the 
President  and  a  portion  of  his  party  in  Congress, 
and  it  does  not  appear  that  the  proposition  re- 
ceived any  serious  consideration  whatever. 

In  1876  I  bombarded  the  members  of  both 
the  Congressional  and  National  Committees  of 
the  Republican  Party  with  another  printed  me- 
morial upon  the  subject.  The  secretary  of  one 
of  them  acknowledged  it. 

Then  I  gave  up  this  method  and  in  1879  wrote 
a  book,  hoping  to  call  attention  to  the  evil,  its 
causes,  character,  and  remedy.  In  it  are  to  be 
found  these  words : 

"  The  remedy  for  darkness  is  light ;  for  ignorance, 
knowledge ;  for  wrong,  righteousness.  .  .  .  Let  the 
Nation  undo  the  evil  it   has  permitted  and  encouraged. 


Will  Ccesar  Hear?  413 

Let  it  educate  those  whom  it  made  ignorant,  and  protect 
those  whom  it  made  weak.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  favor  to 
them,  but  of  safety  to  the  Nation.  Make  the  spelling-book 
the  scepter  of  national  power.  Let  the  Nation  educate  the 
colored  man  and  the  poor  white  BECA  USE  the  Nation 
held  them  in  bondage,  and  is  responsible  for  their  igno- 
rance. Educate  the  voter  BECA  USE  the  Nation  cannot 
afford  that  he  should  remain  ignorant.  .  .  .  Poor  whites, 
freedmen,  Ku-Klux,  and  Bull-Dozers  are  all  alike  the  har- 
vest of  ignorance.  The  Nation  cannot  afford  to  grow  such 
a  crop." 

The  volume  was  published  in  November,  1879. 
It  was  the  first  appeal  to  the  people  in  this  mat- 
ter. Caesar  heard.  The  Republican  National 
Convention  met  the  next  June.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  history  of  the  country  a  great  party 
pledged  itself  in  its  platform  to  the  support  of 
measures  for  the  promotion  of  national  aid  to 
education  by  these  words  : 

"  The  work  of  popular  education  is  one  left  to 
the  care  of  the  several  States,  but  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  national  government  to  aid  that  to  the 
extent  of  its  constitutional  ability.  The  intel- 
ligence of  the  Nation  is  but  the  aggregate  of  the 
intelligence  of  the  several  States  ;  and  the  des- 
tiny of  the  Nation  must  be  guided,  not  by  the 
genius  of  any  one  State,  but  by  the  genius  of  all." 


4H  An  yip  peal  to  Ccesar. 

Since  that  time  much  has  been  said  :  and  noth- 
ing done.  As  we  have  seen,  it  was  the  subject 
nearest  to  Garfield's  heart.  His  death  turned 
the  Nation's  attention  away  from  all  subjects  of 
national  polity  except  those  which  might  be 
linked  directly  or  indirectly  with  the  event  of  his 
death.  In  the  mean  time  many  good  and  wise 
men  have  joined  in  promoting  the  educational 
movement  in  Congress  on  the  general  ground  of 
abstract  public  advantage  and  national  honor. 
That  it  would  be  a  good,  a  wise  and  commend- 
able thing  for  the  Nation  to  do  seems  to  be 
admitted  by  all.  That  it  is  the  one  possible  rem- 
edy for  an  evil  of  incalculaole  magnitude  seems  to 
be  in  danger  of  being  forgotten.  No  question 
seems  to  be  thought  worthy  of  prominence  in 
the  campaign  of  1884  that  does  not  find  its  high- 
est expression  in  some  application  of  our  decimal 
currency.  Statesmanship  appears  to  have  aban- 
doned the  domain  of  public  honor,  forgotten 
the  claims  of  personal  right  and  liberty,  and 
ignored  the  question  of  the  public  safety.  The 
inscrutable  mysteries  of  tariff  and  wages  are  dan- 
gled before  the  eyes  of  voters  upon  the  one  side 
and  the  other  as  the  only  things  worthy  of  con- 
sideration   at   this   time.     What    is   the    reason  ? 


Will  Ccesar  Hear  ?  415 

They  do  not  understand  that  duty  and  honor  are 
stronger  bids  for  the  favor  of  a  free  people  than 
any  appeal  to  greed.  There  are  no  servants  who 
are  so  apt  to  forget  their  appointed  tasks  as 
those  who  are  charged  with  a  public  trust  in  the 
performance  of  which  they  can  discern  no  im- 
mediate personal  advantage.  Why  should  a 
politician  whose  steps  are  already  passing  down- 
ward from  life's  divide  trouble  himself  about 
securing  general  intelligence  among  those  who 
will  not  cast  a  ballot  until  his  career  is  ended  ? 
As  well  expect  a  centenarian  to  plant  an  orchard  ! 


What  can  Caesar  Do? 


'  I  ^HIS  year  is  one  of  those  in  which  the 
-*-  servants  of  the  people  receive  their  march- 
ing orders.  The  convention  and  the  platform  of 
the  party  to  which  he  belongs  are  not  the  only 
things  that  impress  his  duty  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  candidate.  The  people's  will,  how- 
ever it  may  find  expression,  is  pretty  sure  to 
control  his  action.  It  is  a  curious  but  important 
fact  that  the  unwritten  ethical  code  of  American 
politics  is  so  strong  that  even  party  affiliation  is 
rarely  potent  enough  to  induce  a  representative 


What  can   Ccesar  Do  ?  417 

of  the  people  to  override  the  expressed  and  un- 
mistakable will  of  his  constituents,  and  still  more 
rarely  strong  enough  to  induce  him  to  ignore  an 
explicit  pledge  to  pursue  a  certain  line  of  con- 
duct. This  is  one  of  those  years  when  we 
choose  the  servants  who  are  to  shape  our  legisla- 
tion. These  are  they  to  whom  our  myriad- 
minded  Caesar  delegates  his  imperial  power. 
The  most  important  work  of  government  is  in- 
trusted to  them.  While  the  result  is  still  in 
doubt  they  are  accessible  to  reason.  As  a  rule 
they  are  willing  to  pledge  themselves  to  do  or 
not  to  do  any  especial  thing  not  explicitly 
opposed  to  the  doctrines  and  platform  of  their 
party.  The  individual  Caesar,  therefore,  who 
desires  to  see  this  great  national  duty  performed, 
this  constantly  growing  evil  cured,  and  this  im- 
pending danger  averted  will  at  once  address  him- 
self to  the  Congressional  candidates  from  his 
district,  and  will  propound  a  few  such  pertinent 
inquiries  as  the  following: 

I. — Do  you  think  that  republican  institutions  can 

long  be  safe   in  a   nation  having  an  average 

of  seventeen  per  cent  of   illiteracy  among  its 

people? 

2. — Do  you  not  think  it  perilous   to   the   national 


4i 8  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

welfare  that  in  sixteen  States  more  than 
forty  per  cent  of  the  population  over  ten 
years  old  cannot  read  or  write? 

3. — Do  you  not  think  it  a  matter  of  prime  im- 
portance to  the  Nation  that  in  eight  of  the 
minor  republics  of  the  Union  forty-eight 
and  one-lialf  per  cent  of  the  people  over  ten 
years  old  cannot  read  or  write  ? 

4. — Does  it  strike  you  as  an  important  fact  that 
one-half  the  population  of  those  eight 
States  are  white,  and  the  other  half  of  the 
colored  race? 

5. — Do  you  think  it  of  any  special  moment  that 
the  whites  were  masters  and  the  blacks 
were  slaves  a  little  less  than  twenty  years 
ago? 

6. — Has  it  occurred  to  you  as  a  dangerous  symp- 
tom that  in  these  States,  three  of  which 
have  a  large  colored  majority,  a  party 
boasting  itself  to  be  the  "  White  Man's 
Party"  continuously  holds  the  power? 

7. — Has  it  ever  struck  you  as  significant  that 
collisions  between  the  races  are  peculiar  to 
this  region,  and  usually  have  at  least  a  semi- 
political  complexion  ? 

8. — Are  you  aware  that  one-fourth  of  the  whites 


What  can  Ccesa?'  Do  ?  419 

and  three-fourths  of  the  blacks  of  this 
region  are  unable  to  read  or  write? 

9. — Have  you  ever  noted  the  fact  that  the  pre- 
ponderance of  the  blacks  is  increasing  at  an 
amazing  ratio  every  year,  and  considered 
whether  the  present  state  of  affairs  can 
long  continue  without  more  serious  colli- 
sion between  the  races,  and  what  such 
collision  would  mean  ? 

10. — Have  you  fully  considered  the  effect  of 
ignorance  upon  this  state  of  facts,  that  it  is 
impossible  for  the  individual  States  to  rem- 
edy the  evil,  and  that  whatever  is  done  in 
this  direction  should  be  done  quickly? 

II. — Do  you  not  think  that  this  state  of  affairs 
demands  immediate  and  vigorous  action  on 
the  part  of  the  general  government  in  the 
direction  of  National  Education  ? 

12. — Under  the  circumstances  do  you  think  it 
would  be  wise  or  prudent  to  intrust  the 
distribution  of  a  fund  raised  for  the  cure  of 
illiteracy  to  the  officials  of  those  States  in 
which  a  white  minority  has  control  of  every 
department  of  the  government,  while  three- 
fourths  of  the  fund  should  be  devoted  to 
the  education  of  colored  illiterates? 


4-20  An  Appeal  to  Casar. 

13. —  Will  you  pledge  yourself  to  give  your    best 
endeavor  to  the  elaboration  and  adoption  of  a 
measure  bestowing  national  aid  to  primary 
education  on  the  basis  of  illiteracy,  which  shall 
provide  fo?  the  fair  and  equable  distribution 
of  such  fund  without  placing  it  under  State 
control  ? 
If  Osar  will  do  this,  let  him  DO  IT  NOW! 
It  matters  not  whether  he  is  known  or  unknown, 
rich  or  poor,  high  or  low  ;  if  he  hold  a  ballot  in 
his  hand,  his  servant  will  be  only  to  glad  to  listen 
and  reply.    Let  every  candidate  for  Congressional 
honors  receive  not   one  but    a    hundred — aye,  a 
thousand — such  epistles,  and    there  is    no  doubt 
but    the  will   of  the  people    will    be  performed. 
These  are  things  that  even  politicians  do  not  for- 
get.     Let    every   one   who    reads    these    pages 
remember  that  he  has  a  personal  duty  to  perform 
in    connection  with    this    matter,  and    see    to  it 
that  his  duty  is  not  neglected. 

And  for  him  who  reads  this  appeal  after  the 
elections  of  the  autumn  of  1884  are  past, — what 
is  his  duty?  He  will  have  lost  his  best  oppor- 
tunity— to  impress  the  mind  and  conscience  of  a 
candidate  ;  but  the  responsibility  of  this  matter 
will  still  rest  upon  each  individual  citizen,  and  he 


What  can  Ccesar  Do?  421 

must  address  his  representative  and  servant  in 
Congress.  We  cannot  shoulder  off  our  individual 
burdens  on  the  Nation  at  large,  or  on  "  Congress 
and  the  Administration."  That  way  destruction 
lies.  It  is  governments  that  blunder  into  compli- 
cations and  combats  ;  the  instinct  of  the  people 
is  far  safer.  But  it  must  be  operative.  If  Caesar 
is  to  act,  each  single  Ccesar  must  do  his  part.  Let 
your  Congressman  hear  from  you  ! 

One  of  the  wisest  of  the  laws  of  Solon,  pre- 
scribed for  the  government  of  the  Athenians,  was 
that  which  disfranchised  all  who  should  stand 
neutral  in  case  of  a  rebellion  or  sedition  of  any 
sort  among  the  people.  Those  who  engaged  in 
rebellion,  made  war  upon  the  government,  stirred 
up  strife  and  sedition,  might  be  forgiven ;  but 
those  who  stood  by  and  left  the  government  to 
fight  it  out  with  the  insurgents,  those  who  had 
not  manhood  enough  to  entertain  a  conviction 
either  one  way  or  the  other,  or  had  not  courage 
enough  to  stand  forth  and  take  the  risk  of  death 
or  exile  because  of  that  conviction — these  were  to 
be  punished  without  hope  or  possibility  of  pardon 
by  absolute,  irrevocable  disfranchisement.  The 
American  citizen,  the  individual  Caesar  to  whose 


42  2  An  Appeal  to  Ccesar. 

judgment  are  left  the  issues  of  prosperity  and 
adversity,  of  peace  and  war,  of  life  and  death  for 
the  Nation,  who  has  not  the  manhood  to  deter- 
mine those  issues  for  himself  and  to  take  the 
steps  which  shall  give  effect  to  his  judgment — 
such  a  man  well  deserves  the  fate  which  the  laws 
of  Solon  prescribed.  The  worst  enemy  which  our 
national  institutions  can  have  is  not  the  man  who 
assails  them,  for  he  may  be  met  and  overcome : 
it  is  the  man  who  knows  what  is  right  and  neces- 
sary to  be  done,  but  is  too  slothful  and  indifferent 
to  give  effect  to  his  own  opinion  and  exercise  the 
power  he  holds  as  one  of  the  co-ordinate  rulers  of 
the  Great  Republic. 


This  appeal  may  be  vain.  Dictated  from  a  bed 
of  sickness  as  it  has  been,  it  may  only  weakly  set 
forth  the  grounds  on  which  it  is  based :  but  I  have 
performed  what  seemed  a  duty,  and  leave  now 
the  responsibility  for  action  or  inaction,  good  or 
evil  consequences,  to  those  my  fellow-rulers  for 
whose  consideration  these  pages  have  been 
written. 


THE   END. 

204  Pfl     br 

03/24/95         32561 


33 


